Immortal Ikari
by Traitor of All Traitors
Summary: Suppose that Shinji was in an incident long before he was sent for by his father to come to Tokyo-3? Suppose the incident left him scarred in more ways than one can imagine? Suppose that he became a new participant in an ancient struggle between light and darkness where a mysterious prize was at stake along with the world itself. In the end, there can be only one!
1. Prologue

Creation began on 11-02-16

Creation ended on 11-16-16

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Immortal Ikari

A/N: This just occurred to me the day before that this was another possibility within the multiverse of what I've written that uses the manga as its foundation.

Misato Katsuragi, twenty-nine years old and one of the rare few in all of Japan to possess purple hair, was having a difficult time trying to find a fourteen-year-old boy whose picture in her file of him was very outdated. She actually wanted to question it with Ritsuko, but now wasn't the time to. All she really got out of the file was how four years ago, the boy she was looking for had to be removed from the custody of his maternal aunt and uncle after an incident involving the aunt, but the details of the incident weren't disclosed, just that, afterwards, the boy was removed for his own protection. He was then placed with a relative from his father's side of the family.

"I picked a bad time to lose the boy," she told herself as she drove around the streets of Tokyo-2, looking for her priority subject. "Where is he?"

-x-

The only thing good about his predicament was that he could get around in places most couldn't without causing a scene, but Shinji found everything else about the last four years of his life to be troublesome. Everything from rules to hints and tips, but what benefitted him was that he never had to live with his mother's sister and her family ever again after what she did to him.

He looked down at the picture he received in the mail from his father…and shuddered in mild disgust at the pose the woman in it gave, as if she were expecting an older person.

"' _Look at this'_ ," he read on the photo, as the woman had an arrow pointing to her partially-exposed cleavage. "It's not like I even have the time for a romantic relationship. I have time…so long as I follow the Rules…but to play the Game… It's only to protect myself from others like me, not to go after them."

If it wasn't the fact that he carried a tanto dagger that he had a special permit to carry, Shinji Ikari would've been mistaken for a regular boy. A regular, ten-year-old boy, that is.

-x-

"…Are you sure that the picture's accurate?" Ritsuko Akagi asked on the phone, trying to get confirmation over date the Third Child's photo. "But…this photograph is similar to the one taken four years ago…and the ones taken three years after this…incident that took place."

Once she obtained the information she was looking for regarding the picture, she hung up her cell phone and turned to face Gendo Ikari in his office as they prepared to head to Central Dogma for the JSSDF's defense strategy against the Third Angel.

"Well?" Gendo asked her.

"The picture's authentic," she revealed. "The day it was taken, his appearance, everything."

"Except that he looks like a ten-year-old."

"According to his medical records, the incident occurred a month before his eleventh birthday. After that, nothing was the same for him."

"What matters now is whether or not we can even use him."

"We might be able to, but we won't know for sure until we see him."

-x-

"…So, you're him?" Misato asked the little boy in the passenger seat of her Renault. "You're Shinji Ikari?"

The ten-year-old boy looked at her and responded, "Not what you were expecting?"

"I was expecting you to be a bit more…taller."

"And I was expecting you to be wiser. And if not wiser, at least punctual…and not a person that looks like one of those swimsuit models."

"Are you sure you're fourteen?"

"Last time I checked, I was."

"But…you're… How can this be?"

"You wouldn't believe me, even if I told you. Even if I could tell anyone. Why did that man send for me, anyway? He never even came to see me, not even after what his in-laws did to me. I don't really care what he does for a living, nothing should keep one from seeing someone else when they're in a state of incapacitation."

"What did they do to you?"

"Really want to know?"

"It can't have been that bad."

"Forgive my choice of words, Ms. Katsuragi…but that bitch of a maternal aunt I had…tried to kill me four years ago. She screwed up my already-screwed-up life."

"Your…your aunt…tried to kill you?"

"Why else would I have been removed from their house? The doctors said that she had temporary insanity, but I didn't see anything in her that was crazy. I know crazy, and her attempt on my life was not crazy. It was premeditated. She just didn't count on a Good Samaritan showing up by the kitchen window and seeing what she did."

"So…what did she…"

"A baseball bat to the back of my head…and then a stab to my chest. I still get migraines and heart attacks every now and then."

Their conversation had occurred nearly an hour after they both saw the giant monster that Misato addressed as an Angel (though Shinji had to express that he had seen an angel that was more forgiving and merciful than that of a giant monster). And Misato found that, despite the claim that he was fourteen, she could barely take him serious because of his appearance. But there was something else about him that was odd, and it wasn't the fact that she saw him with a tanto dagger on his person, something she needed to ask him about.

"What's with the tanto?" She asked him.

"Protection," he uttered, being simple.

"Protection? Protection from whom?"

"Anyone I have to use it against."

"I've never seen a tanto save anyone."

"Then you look in the wrong places. However, while I'm here, I hope I don't have to use it."

"Then why bring it?"

"It's the same principle as a condom; I'd rather have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. I've seen a lot of people's lives get turned upside-down because of their reckless choices that involve sex and drugs. Contracting HIV because they either didn't use rubbers or because they shared needles, schoolgirls having babies because of either being rape victims whose parents are pro-lifers or because they were used and cast aside by heartless men or even because they decided to make pregnancy pacts like they know everything. Two months ago, I had to attend the funeral of a friend that died from tuberculosis, and what infuriates me about her death is that she didn't deserve to die from an illness that could've been treated and cured."

This, however, Misato found herself able to take serious. Even from a ten-year-old that spoke like an educated fourteen-year-old.

-x-

With the JSSDF's failure to do away with the Angel, command over the situation had been transferred to NERV.

"How will you handle the situation, Ikari?" Kozo Fuyutsuki asked Gendo.

"I intend to activate Unit-01," he answered.

"But…we have no pilot."

"Not to be concerned. Another spare is arriving soon."

-x-

The picture was one thing, but to see Shinji in person was another thing altogether. And this was something Ritsuko found disturbing because he looked and sounded like a child four years below NERV's pilot requirements, not just the fact that he had a tanto on his person.

"Are you sure this is him?" She asked Misato when she brought him in.

"Uh, yeah," Misato answered. "This is him."

"Uh…he's…"

Shinji looked up at her and said, "I'm what? I look like a ten-year-old? I look like a pipsqueak?"

Against her better judgment, Ritsuko nodded that he was on the mark.

"Well, you're a faux-blond," he retorted kindly back to her. "I know blonds, and you're no blond. You're a brunette."

This surprised both ladies. He had just met both of them today, and he knew right then that Ritsuko was hiding her actual hair color.

Being led through the hall and into an elevator by them, Shinji, who had been given a booklet by Misato earlier and skimmed through the pages, finding nothing of any importance, thought back to the day his life almost ended and pretty much did. Just not in the usual sense. That day, that time in the kitchen, that bat and knife.

"…As in oni," he heard Dr. Akagi say to Ms. Katsuragi. "A Japanese demon."

"You're disgracing the myths and legends with your scientific babble," he shared his opinion with them, casting the booklet aside onto the floor. "I call it babble when I know absolutely nothing about why I'm here or why that man sent for me to come here."

"Didn't your father send you a letter explaining why?" Ritsuko asked him.

"A piece of paper that says, _'Come to Tokyo-3'_ doesn't really say anything. If this is an organization built on lies and half-truths…and the only reason he sent for me is based on a lie or half-truth…I'm better off wanting nothing to do with him beyond what nearly got me killed."

The elevator stopped and the ladies led him out into another hallway.

 _It's hard to look at him without taking him serious,_ thought Ritsuko, turning back to look down at him every few seconds, seeing him look back at them. _What happened to him?_

Shinji stopped for a moment, looking down another hallway, and then resuming his following of the ladies.

"I have a question that doesn't concern what's going on here," he spoke. "Are there any churches or temples around here? Cemeteries? Shrines?"

"It's Tokyo-3," went Misato. "There isn't anything like that around here."

"Crap," he sighed.

They stopped in front of a door and Ritsuko led them inside a dark room.

FLASH! The lights came on, temporarily blinding Shinji.

"Ah!" He gasped, shielding his eyes from the light. "Don't do that! What are you, stupid?! Turning on the lights without even a warning! Whoa!"

In front of him was a giant, armored face with a horn. Purple in predominant color with bits of green. It was surrounded by a pool of water and a bridge.

From Shinji's perspective, it had to be at least a few hundred feet.

 _What the Hell does this asshole want with me that would jeopardize my safety from those that would come after my head?_ He wondered, clutching his tanto.

"How is this possible?" He then heard a voice that was undeniably cruel, and looked up at a window of an observation room where a man that made the color black the old tan and brown, with orange-tinted glasses. "How are you still…as you were four years ago?"

"To be simple, it's your sister-in-law's fault," he answered the man. "Now answer this question… What the Hell do you want with me…and why should I consider doing anything for you after all these years?"

This was just too weird for everyone present that saw Shinji. If they had all read his file that NERV had on him, they knew he was fourteen…but the way he looked and talked just didn't fit with his age. If anything else, they just found him to be…very disturbing and abnormal.

"Listen carefully to what I'm going to tell you," Gendo uttered to his son. "You're going to pilot the Eva and fight the Angel."

"Are you high?" Shinji asked him.

"What?" Gendo went.

"Are you high? Are you using drugs, heroin, weed…because I think you're off. Way off."

They couldn't believe Shinji was asking this. But then again, it was unexpected to hear anyone ask such questions.

"You actually think I can face something like that monster out there that I can't even hold responsible for the destruction of a city just because it showed up so suddenly? Look at me. Look at me. What makes you suspect that I can do anything for you? And why would you think I could? In case you haven't noticed, I didn't reach my average height."

He was less than four feet tall, practically the size of a little child, not a dwarf or leprechaun or some other small creature. And yet NERV was trying to use him to save their lives.

"The truth, old man," Shinji enforced his desire to know the reason.

But Gendo found himself unable to address his son with seriousness.

"I'll tell you what," Shinji then told him. "I'll try and do this for you once. Once. And if it goes well, you tell me what the Hell is going on here…and don't shortchange me. I didn't survive this long by being taken advantage of."

 _At least he's willing to try and help us out here,_ thought Misato as the crew present got to work on getting the Eva to work with Shinji.

-x-

The Third Angel, Sachiel, despite his bruises and compensated face to replace the original that had been burnt and blown off, continued on his path to where this cruel and unforgiving feeling dwelled. These people…these…Lilim…and their obstacles, their arts and crafts were nothing short of a hindrance that got in his way and refused to let up. If they continued to interfere with this delicate matter, he wouldn't hold back on eliminating any pests.

-x-

It was embarrassing for NERV when Shinji was put into the Entry Plug; while it was designed to accommodate a small person, it didn't include him, for his feet couldn't even reach the bottom of the seat and his hands couldn't reach the handles in front of him unless he got out of the seat and stood up. And right now, stand up in the plug wasn't an option for them with their limited timetable to stop the Angel.

"Preparing to flood the Entry Plug," Shinji heard a female voice inside the plug, and then saw an orange liquid filling the confined space up.

"Hey!" He shouted. "You idiots! You didn't even warn me!"

"Don't worry," said Ritsuko told him in Central Dogma. "Once your lungs have been saturated with LCL, your blood will be oxygenated directly. You'll get used to it."

"You do realize that you put me in a small space…full of liquid…that smells like blood, right?" He questioned. "Don't get cute with me."

"Oh, pipe down," went Misato to him. "You're a boy, you know."

"What has that to do with what you just did?"

"Yeah, what does that have to do with what we just did?" A female technician asked her.

"Synchronization is holding at…eighty-six percent," said another female technician.

"Eighty-six percent?" Ritsuko questioned. "That's amazing."

"Prepare to launch Unit-01," Misato ordered.

The purple behemoth was moved to the catapult system and shot straight up a shaft.

 _Dammit!_ Shinji thought, feeling like he was about to jump out of his skin because it tightened too much. "Oh!"

The behemoth stopped and stood up in the middle of several buildings…and the creature that had been attacked and had fought back earlier.

-x-

This thing in front of Sachiel. It had a mild resemblance to somehow he worshipped greatly…but the stench of it…was that of someone that shouldn't have been around long ago and caused grief. He knew what needed to be done now before he did anything else, and that was to reduce this…abomination created by the Lilim to pulp before it became a distraction.

-x-

Walking under one's own power was simple enough, but making something you suddenly found out was attached to your nervous system was something else entirely different. This was something Shinji found out the instant he was instructed on what to do. It would've been easier if there were pedals for his feet. At least he had his tanto with him, which he held for luck.

Unfortunately, while the Eva did begin the process of walking, it wasn't going anywhere towards the Angel. It was moving left, walking around a different set of city blocks.

"Shinji, what are you doing?" Misato asked him over the intercom.

"It's not me," he responded. "This thing's got a mind of its own. I think 'walk', it decides differently! If anything, this doesn't make anything easy as simply sitting in the damn seat!"

The Eva then went around the block it stopped moving past and approached the Angel.

"Oh, now you want to go to the Angel? Now, you want to go to the Angel! Stupid machine!" Shinji expressed, just in time to watch the Angel reach out to grab him. "Aah!"

He thought of blocking with his arms, a simple instinct used by many of his experience when they lack other defenses, and the Eva imitated his thought. But it didn't keep the Angel from grabbing the Eva and begin crushing its right arm, sending a foreign signal of discomfort to Shinji's arm.

"Aaaurgh!" He screamed, feeling like the creature was actually grabbing him. "Let go! Let go!"

"Shinji, pay attention!" Misato told him. "That's not your arm the Angel's grabbing! It's all in your head!"

"My ass!" Shinji retorted. "I bet this abomination was never even tested!"

He thought of bashing the Angel's face in, and the Eva did that with its left arm.

Unfortunately, the Angel had succeeded in doing what it had intended to do, which was break the Eva's right arm, which caused Shinji intense pain in turn.

-x-

"The right arm has sustained damage!" One of the technicians informed.

On the various, holographic monitors, the sight of the Eva and Angel was an intense scene. The Eva was now forced to back away since its pilot was feeling pain.

"What about Shinji?" Misato questioned.

"His synchronization with the Eva's dropping," another technician informed her.

The Angel grabbed the Eva by its head and began bashing it with an energy pike in its left arm, trying to impale it through.

"That armor can't last against that type of punishment!" Ritsuko gasped.

As it kept pounding at the Eva's head, the pilot's synchronization continued to decline rapidly.

BASH! The Angel had impaled the Eva's head and sent it flying backwards onto the ground, and a geyser of blood shot out of the Eva's head, spraying everywhere.

"Unit-01 has gone silent!" A female technician shouted.

"The pilot's condition is unknown!" A male technician added.

"We have no choice," said Misato, realizing that it was a mistake to make Shinji do this, even if he wasn't a ten-year-old boy and just looked like one. "Abort the operation! We have to rescue the pilot! Eject the Entry Plug!"

"We can't! We've lost all contact with the Eva!" The female technician revealed.

-x-

Within the plug, bleeding above his right eye, Shinji slipped in and out of consciousness as he thought back to the day he was attacked by his maternal aunt. How far the extent of her contempt for him went when she struck him in the back and the moment she stabbed him in the heart with the kitchen knife.

" _You good-for-nothing brat!"_ She yelled at him. _"What good are you if your own father doesn't want you around?! Why don't you just die?! Die like your mother!"_

He clutched his tanto close to his chest as his memory redirected to the moment he was found and taken to the hospital after the Good Samaritan found him and called the police.

" _What happened to him?"_

" _He was struck and stabbed by his aunt."_

" _He has some defensive wounds on his wrists."_

" _She was trying to kill him, but he tried to defend himself."_

" _The cousin is claiming the boy brought this on himself."_

" _The uncle's defending his wife's actions against their nephew."_

He kept wondering why he hadn't died yet; he'd been stabbed in his chest and that should've done the job of putting him down. But instead, he was found by the doctors to be suddenly on the mend, something about how his body was lucky enough to avoid a stab that was known to kill instantly if not treated in time. It didn't make any sense to him.

" _The aunt claims she didn't really mean to hurt him,"_ he heard a policeman say to a doctor, _"but we shouldn't send the boy back to his aunt and uncle at all. If he was attacked like this by just the aunt and the uncle didn't realize what had happened until he got home and the cousin did nothing to stop her, he's not safe with them."_

" _It's not like we can send him back to his father. We actually tried to get in touch with him…and he said not to bother with him such a trivial matter."_ A doctor explained. _"His son was attacked by his sister-in-law, and he views it as a trivial matter? He's such a cruel man."_

" _Then…he has nobody willing to take him?"_

Oh, how Shinji thought his life was in tatters after that unfaithful day that rendered him locked in time…until they came for him.

" _Um, excuse us, but is this Shinji Ikari's room?"_ A female voice asked outside his room as he looked up at the ceiling.

" _Who are you two?"_ A policewoman asked.

" _We might be his only distant relatives on his father's side,"_ a male voice responded.

At that moment, he felt an unusual sensation that was unlike anything else he had felt up until the day his aunt tried to kill him. It was like a buzzing noise, only it was in his head.

"Shinji Ikari, you have visitors," the doctor informed him as they stepped inside.

Behind the doctor was a couple that he hadn't seen before. The man had fading, ebony hair and was likely in his early-forties, with purple eyes, dressed in jeans and a blue shirt. The woman, however, was in her mid to late-thirties, with shoulder-length hair of the same coloration, minus the fading, with silver eyes, dressed in a summer yukata of pink and yellow colors. While they seemed kind enough, the boy was traumatized by what happened to him just a week ago.

" _How are you feeling today, Shinji?"_ The woman asked him as they sat down around his bed.

" _Are you…going to try and kill me?"_ He uttered, shutting his eyes and turning his head to the left, looking away from the woman and at the small window.

" _I don't blame you for saying that,"_ she expressed; she had been informed that he would likely be traumatized by the attempt on his life and would likely view adults, men and women, with fear that just because his maternal aunt tried to off him. _"No, none of us are going to hurt you."_

 _The fear of being killed can make anyone ask if they're going to be killed by anyone else,_ thought Shinji, now slipping fully into unconsciousness. _There… Can… Be… Only… One…_

-x-

The Eva's remaining eye flared back to life…and its mouth, which had been bolted shut, ripped open to reveal red, metallic teeth.

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAURGH!" It roared, an unholy blend between the organic and the technological, staring at the Angel.

-x-

"The Eva has reactivated," said a female technician.

"This isn't possible," a male technician added. "The pilot's synchronization graphs are still in the negative! There's no syncing between either the Eva or the boy!"

"My God," went Misato in realization.

"The Eva's out of control," said Ritsuko, unsure about what would happen.

-x-

The Eva raised its left arm…and some sort of yellow-orange, electrical energy emanated from it, forming into a sword. It lowered the energy sword in front of its armored face.

The Angel was confused by this unexpected behavior, unsure of how to go about its agenda.

-x-

"That looks like…a katana," said Fuyutsuki to Gendo, just as the Eva charged towards the Angel.

SLASH! The energy cut clean through the Angel's right arm, sending it to the streets below!

"Aaah!" The Angel shrieked, now bleeding blue blood from it severed limb.

The Eva ran around a building block as the Angel fired its energy beams, missing the Eva, but severing its external power supply cable. It then went around the block to the back of the Angel as it turned around to face the cybernetic behemoth.

SLASH! Its left arm was then severed from its body.

"Could Shinji be doing this?" Misato asked Ritsuko.

"No way," the faux-blond answered. "If there's no synchronization, there's no response from the pilot. I don't see how any of this behavior is his."

 _And she didn't strike me as a student of any swordsmanship, either,_ thought Fuyutsuki, being cryptic in his mind.

On the screens, Unit-01's right arm regenerated and held the lower half of the energy sword's hilt, brandishing it at the Angel's core.

DASH! It then shot like a bullet at the Angel and swung its blade in half a second, stopping just three feet away from the back of the Angel.

As the energy blade suddenly disappeared from the Eva's hands, the Angel's core fell from its body…along with a large portion of its upper body, just in between its shoulder, removing the patch of flesh that served as the location of its head. The core had been sliced in half, its cut edges having chips of its crystalline structure flaking off as it hit the streets below.

"Incredible," several technicians expressed.

Before Misato could give an order to send a rescue unit to the Eva, the Angel's body began to rise from off the ground where it fell…along with the Eva. Some sort of electrical energy outlined the Angel's body, including where the arms, head and core once were…and a burst of light emanated from it, sending a surge towards Unit-01! This unexpected phenomenon, unlike anything anyone had anticipated, sent a massive feedback throughout the city going seven blocks in all directions, shattering the glass windows. It lasted for about a minute or so until the Angel and Eva dropped to the ground.

"Unbelievable," Misato gasped; she wouldn't have believed this had she not seen it for herself.

-x-

Even though he wasn't conscious, he still knew the immense sensation he felt when he had. It was undeniable to Shinji's subconscious mind. Something had happened that resulted in something similar to what he had experienced not too long after he had been removed from his maternal relatives' custody and placed within the care of these people that were said to be from his father's side of the family. He had received a Quickening; all that he knew, all that he was…was improved, enhanced, strengthened, made greater than before.

As he clutched his tanto tighter, the same thought he had as he lost consciousness echoed in his head: _There can be only one._

To be continued…

A/N: What do you think, readers?! This is my first crossover between _Neon Genesis Evangelion_ and the _Highlander_ franchise! And Shinji got a Quickening from an Angel! Let me know what you think of it!


	2. Truth and Lies

Creation began on 11-16-16

Creation ended on 11-21-16

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Immortal Ikari: Truths and Lies

Feeling like he had just donated a large amount of blood to a local drive for people in need, Shinji awoke to find himself in what looked like a hospital room, but on a larger scale than the previous one he had been in when he was recovering from his attack from his maternal aunt. It was bright outside the windows, but the boy's first reaction to where he was…was to check his neck. Letting go of his tanto momentarily, he felt the flesh under his jaw and above his shoulders, feeling no damage.

 _I'm okay,_ he thought, now getting out of the bed and walking towards the door to vacate the room. _I better get my clothes and bag and get the Hell outta here and out of these hospital garments. White is a dull color after a long while._

-x-

"…First Unit-00, then Unit-01," went an old man with a strange visor on his head, bathed in white light, to Gendo in front of four other men bathed in different colors of light, "several city blocks… The costs of repairs are going to cost as much as a small nation, Ikari!"

"And it's not just the Evas and Angels that concern us," a man bathed in green light expressed. "A recent discovery bothers us on what you did prior to the Third Angel's defeat."

"We have reason to believe," added a man bathed in yellow light, "that you made a small child pilot Unit-01, not a teenager."

"An anonymous informant disclosed with us that the small child was your son," said the old man with the visor. "What are you not telling us, Ikari?"

Gendo was emotionless to the point of unaffected by this discovery. Or at least, he gave the skilled impression that he was unaffected.

"If you have other children outside of your brief marriage, you know that withholding this knowledge comes with a price," the visor-wearing man warned him.

"I have no other children," Gendo defended. "For some unexplained reason, the Third Child has retained the same appearance for the past four years after an attempt on his life was made."

The men in front of him looked at one another before looking back at him.

"This…does not make any sense," said the man bathed in blue light. "It is impossible for anyone to remain as they were after any attack, no matter how many years have gone by."

-x-

The remains of the Third Angel had almost transmuted into pure diamond within the last few hours after it was defeated, leaving the science division of NERV at a loss on how this was possible when it shouldn't have been.

"It's probably the nature of this Angel after death," said Misato to Ritsuko, removing the external layers of her hazmat suit after being informed that the air was clean to breathe (and it was getting hot in her suit).

Ritsuko, on the other hand, kept on the layers of her hazmat suit and charted down what had been discovered by the science division so far.

"That blade of energy had to be the Eva's AT-Field in a manipulated state," she theorized on the battle last night. "It had to be. Nothing else could penetrate the Angel's AT-Field."

"But how was the Eva able to do any of what it did…when the pilot was cut off completely?" Misato questioned; when the rescue team had removed Shinji from the Eva, he was out cold and had a bloody gash on his head…and was holding onto his tanto so tightly that not even the doctors could pry it from his hands without tearing his fingers off with it. _All they could agree on was that the head trauma from the Eva's head damage was more than he could take, and that his brain and other body functions slowed to a crawl in order to cope with the stress and pain._

"I'd like to ask him if he remembers anything from yesterday," Ritsuko expresses, "but it's unlikely he has any recall of the previous day."

-x-

If only Ritsuko knew, before the massive headache he received that forced his nervous system to shut down to cope with the pain, Shinji recalled everything that happened yesterday. And he was starting to recall scenes of what occurred during the time he was out cold. It was only a few moments of time, but he summed it up into a record of what he didn't see: The Angel caused head trauma to the Eva, the Eva got back up on its own, formed a sword out of some sort of energy, defeated the Angel, and that was how he received a Quickening.

So far, it didn't seem like any of the people that worked here knew of his newfound power, and he wanted to keep it that way.

 _The less they know, the better,_ he thought, standing in front of a ceiling-mounted television that had the news running, mostly about stocks and the weather, but absolutely nothing about the Angel or the Eva. _Life is a shadowy realm outside of a regular existence. The truth and lies that surround us all._

-x-

"…Your time has been…appreciated," the man bathed in red light told Gendo, as he and the other three men disappeared from the meeting, revealing the majority of the men present during the meeting were just holograms.

Once the discussions on the media and this important Human Instrumentality Project were through, all that left was just the adjustment of NERV's budget for the repairs of the Evas and the additional information desired on the Third Child's current condition.

"Ikari," the visor-wearing man warned, "if you're unable to find a reason to why this boy hasn't changed within the last four years… We will demand to interview him for ourselves. He may be…just as intriguing as we hope the H.I. Project to be our salvation in these desperate times."

Then, as he disappeared, leaving Gendo alone in the room, said man was left mentally appalled by the Committee's desire to interview the Third Child if NERV had no conclusion to how he was able to remain as he was before his aunt made an attempt on his life.

Sighing, he reached into his pocket and took out a cell phone, dialing a number from his list of contacts within the base.

"Fuyutsuki," he uttered.

-x-

When the television news proved to be uninformative to his current situation, Shinji wandered the halls of this hospital-like environment, keeping his hands gripped to his tanto as he passed several doors. So far, he hadn't felt any potential danger from afar, but he knew that could change at any given time, requiring constant vigilance when away from home.

 _Home,_ he thought, feeling like it was a foreign word he barely understood. _It's something I didn't have for a long time…and just one of the few things I want for my future… If I even have a future left in this world._

Again, he found himself resenting what he discovered from his new guardians after they took him in, how because of the trauma of his violent attack on his life, he was stuck in time. While glad to be alive, he felt he couldn't truly live like everyone else could.

" _You're not the only one who feels this way, Shinji,"_ said his paternal aunt…who was far from his actual aunt, but was from his father's side of the family. _"There have been many before you that felt that a normal life was denied to them. Believe me, I know this to be true."_

Stopping under a window that extended down the hall to allow light to shine through, he sighed at how different he was from other teens. In due time, those around him would experience things he would never get to experience, like romantic dates, high school proms, college life, struggling to balance their budgets, buying crap they didn't need, getting injured and trying to rehabilitate themselves back into society and just growing old with those around them.

-x-

 _The First Lesson_

"…I don't understand why we really need to be so far away from the shore," Shinji had told his new guardians one day after he had been settled in, as his male guardian that was rowing the boat for the three of them in the large lake, which made Shinji uncomfortable because he couldn't swim and feared their boat could capsize at any moment. "And why couldn't we wear life vests?"

"Has anyone told you that you worry about too many things?" His uncle or whatever his status made him as to Shinji on his father's side asked him.

"I feel I have a right to be worried," he defended his fearfulness. "I just got out of the hospital and away from those people… And I don't want to go through what happened again!"

"You sound like Connor and Duncan when I met them years ago," his aunt told him. "They feared being killed when it was very difficult to hurt them back then."

"Huh?! Connor? Duncan? What are you talking about?"

"You mean to say, you don't feel a little different from before, Shinji? You didn't feel anything you didn't think you could explain? When we met that day in the hospital, even?"

Shinji had felt something that he couldn't get off his back that day they met. It was a feeling of awareness that came from the aunt, like he knew what she was, but he hadn't met her before.

"What happened to you was cruel and unforgivable," she told him, "but what happened to you was bound to happen, and now you need to know what you're capable of now so that you can defend yourself in the future. Now, as the First Death is often extremely violent, the first lesson is also violent!"

"Huh?!" Shinji gasped, and his guardians began to shake the boat. "No! Stop!"

"Sorry about this, Shinji," his uncle apologized to him, and then shoved him over the edge of the boat and into the water. "Don't worry, I'm putting the anchor down."

Shinji's head bobbed in the water as he splashed around, trying to stay buoyant.

"Help! Help me!" He cried as he began to sink. "Help!"

His aunt then got into the water, but she didn't make any attempt to help Shinji. In fact, she didn't even try to swim; she just sank as he did.

"I'm going to drown!" Shinji shouted as he finally sank below the lake.

He couldn't hear his uncle's words, but he did realize that he was screaming underwater as he reached the bottom…and the water didn't obscure his vision or impede him like he expected it to.

 _What's going on here?_ He wondered, opening his mouth, feeling the water seep into his throat, but not hurting him at all. _I can breathe underwater?_

He tried laughing, and air bubbles escaped his mouth.

His aunt stood next to him and offered him her left hand. She looked unharmed under the water, even smiling at him.

He accepted, and she propelled him up to the surface.

GASP! His head burst through the water as he felt air flow through his lungs.

His legs kicked hard to keep him afloat as his aunt surfaced.

"The lesson of this day," she told him. "While the First Death is traumatic, what it unleashed in you will make most attempts on you in the future difficult for those around you to achieve."

She helped him swim back to the boat where her husband helped them back on.

"That was ten minutes well spent," he told them, having kept track of the time they spent underwater. "Do you know what this means, Shinji?"

Sitting across from the adults, the boy nodded that he didn't understand what was happening.

"It means you can't die," his aunt told him. "You died once already, making any new attempt on your life temporary."

-x-

Through his First Death, Shinji had obtained what many had spent lifetimes searching for: Immortality. Many would kill for it, give up everything for it. But for him, Shinji would've done just about anything to be rid of it and go back to being a regular person again.

"Okay, bring her down to the O.R. again," he heard a male nurse say to some people, seeing them wheel a gurney down the hall past him.

He couldn't see anything of whoever it was on the gurney, but suspected they had to be someone that mattered to his father, for he saw Gendo further down the hall.

 _What an asshole,_ he thought, wondering right now if his father would even be truthful towards him. _People can be either nothing but truthful…or anything but truthful. Which are you?_

Gendo looked his way for a moment, but then turned away.

"What a cold man," Shinji heard Misato behind him. "Surely, even his son deserves a kind word or two."

"If people can't say kind things for the sake of showing kindness or some sort of affection, then they're incapable of kindness," Shinji responded. "I learned of this from dealing with an eleven-year-old bully and his eighteen-year-old brother. Neither could own up to the fact that they were responsible for their mother's late night sobbing when she found out their father was killed in a car accident that they caused, resulting in a death toll of at least twenty. They were found out and sentenced to life without parole. That's twenty lives that could have done more with their lives than those two could have ever done with theirs."

Either Shinji had not been a stranger to death or had just been around it too much that it made him numb to it whenever he spoke of it.

"Not a fan of loss, aren't you?" She asked him.

"Who is?" He spoke back. "But it's not just the loss that bothers anyone. It's the fact that those lives are ended and their potential will never be known."

 _Okay, this kid is weird,_ she thought, disturbed a bit by this child.

"So, what is the truth here? What did you really need me here for?"

"You mean, you don't remember?"

"It really depends on what really happened that was remembered. I remember a giant robot and a giant monster that looked like they belonged in a sci-fi film, but everything else… I'll just hold back from saying until I hear the truth."

"Well… The thing is, NERV was founded with the sole purpose of facing these unknown creatures code-named Angels, which threaten to wipe out mankind. They first showed up fifteen years ago…when they triggered Second Impact."

"The whole story about about a meteor impacting the South Pole always seemed like nothing but bullshit, ma'am."

 _Okay, even hearing him use foul language is weird._

"I never believed in it, and neither did my guardians. We deemed it as nothing of the truth. People can either tell you nothing but the truth…or anything but the truth."

"The comet story was a cover to what really happened."

And Shinji, with the expanded knowledge he obtained from the Quickening of Sachiel, knew what really happened. Somehow, according to his aunt, with each Quickening obtained by an immortal, the conscious mind, the subconscious mind, memory recall, all an immortal's mental faculties were enhanced beyond what they used to be. The energy made him smarter, more aware, like he'd been touched by the deities themselves. But he wanted to hear from Ms. Katsuragi what she knew so that he could decide for himself if she was capable of being truthful…or if she was just another liar.

"It's a personal issue that I won't disclose right now," she told him, which surprised him.

"Why?" He asked her.

"Personal issue."

If Shinji had learned anything else in his four years of learning the ways of the immortals, the Game, the Rules, the Prize and cynical behaviors that come with being unable to die unless another immortal took your head, it was how to be sympathetic and empathetic to people that deserved it.

"You were there when it happened, weren't you?" He suspected, which caught Misato off guard.

"What would make you say that?" She questioned.

"Just a feeling…and the fact that you say it's personal."

"Has anyone ever told you that it's creepy to hear you talk while you look the way you do?"

"Many times over. I tell them the same thing I'll tell you. Blame my maternal aunt for this. It is her fault, after all."

-x-

Fuyutsuki was bothered with bringing the Third Child's backpack to the boy's recovery room, as per Gendo's orders. The disturbing fact that he was slightly bigger than he had been when he saw him long ago was something much of the personnel couldn't stop speaking about, and his unique circumstances that put him in the Eva, something he shouldn't have been put into because he couldn't fit in the goddamn seat properly.

"Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki," went Captain Katsuragi, escorting the Third Child back.

Shinji's face scrunched up as he looked up at the elder man's face. He then raised his left hand after letting go of his tanto.

"I've met you before," he said to him. "Your hair wasn't as gray as it is today…and you were speaking with someone, a woman, on a sunny afternoon."

He nearly dropped the boy's bag in front of them; he had been certain that after the day of the contact experiment, the boy's very memory had been affected by the emotional trauma, causing gaps in his recall. But here he was, identifying him as someone he had met years ago. Yet, it disturbed him deeply, simply because the boy was still very small.

"Kozo Fuyutsuki," he addressed himself, and handed the backpack over to him.

"Thank you," he praised the elder, and then entered the room and shut the door.

"He…he still had a tanto in his hands," Fuyutsuki said to Misato.

"Yes, he did," she responded.

"Did he say why he had it?"

"Yes, to protect himself from others that may threaten his life."

"Why would he need a tanto to protect himself from anyone?"

"Believe it or not, he bases his need for the tanto on the principle of a condom, and that he'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it."

"I was told that…the medical team couldn't remove it from his grip. Is this true?"

"Yes, it is. They managed to get one of his hands free of it, but they couldn't remove it from him. A nurse said he held onto it for dear life."

"I'm guessing that it's a way of making him feel safer from his maternal aunt after what happened to him."

"He blames her for his current state."

"Are you two done talking about me behind my back?" They both heard the boy inside the room. "I'd like to hear about that man that sent for me. Is he going to confess why he wanted me to come here…or is he going to lie to me?"

The door opened and Shinji stepped out, dressed in jean shorts and an orange, short-sleeved shirt with a green ascot around his neck.

Fuyutsuki felt like he had taken a step backwards and saw a slightly-taller Shinji dressed the same way the toddler Shinji had been the last time he saw him.

"If it freaks you out even more, pretty much all my clothes are a size small or medium," Shinji told them.

"Uh, maybe we should see your father," Fuyutsuki told Shinji.

"Isn't he still seeing someone that's taller than I am not at the moment?"

-x-

"…So, how was Rei?" Ritsuko asked Gendo as they walked back to the latter's office. "You did see her at the hospital, right?"

"She can work again in about thirty days," he answered her. "By then, we'll be ready to reactivate Unit-00."

"Technicians say that it could take a week to rebuild the seat for the Third Child."

"Is there any explanation as to how he has remained this way for four years?"

"All that was really mentioned…was that he blames his maternal aunt because she did try to kill him. Beyond that, there's no medical or scientific explanation as to how he remained as he is so far. I would like to obtain a blood sample from him to try and know more."

"If there's no explanation we can find, the Committee will demand to interview him themselves."

When they reached the door to his office, it was already occupied by Fuyutsuki, Katsuragi and the Third Child.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on here now?" Shinji asked Gendo. "I did do what I said I'd do once, even when nothing went right."

And they were all reminded that Shinji did say all of that, little or not, fourteen or not.

-x-

 _Fate is cruel and unkind, but promises only one hope_

They had to wait until dark after showing Shinji the extent of his newfound immortality, but under the cover of night, nobody would be able to know what was happening.

"Aaaurgh!" Shinji moaned, feeling like he was actually getting struck by several bolts of electrical energy from the series of stone pillars he was surrounded by with his paternal aunt. "Aaaurgh!"

"This sensation that you feel each time, Shinji," she told him, "is what is known as a Quickening! It serves as a source of our power, what fuels our immortality and grants us abilities that few can only dream of possessing!"

When the electrical surges ended, the boy fell to his knees in front of her, and she offered him a hand to get back up.

"How…how can this all be?" He questioned.

"That was the first thing I asked when I found out I was immortal," she responded, "and my first teacher told me like this: _"Why does the sun come up? Or are the stars pinholes in the curtain of night?"_ He didn't know, either. Some would say that we're only a small few that just pop up at various points in time and suffer something terrible enough to bring us back to life. Some view it as a blessing, others view it as a curse…just like I can tell you view your new life as a curse because it has taken from you your ability to age any further than you are right now."

Shinji looked at her, unsure of how she know he was thinking that! He just discovered that he was going to live forever as a ten-year-old and all because his maternal aunt tried to kill him. If anything right now, he wasn't really afraid of dying. It was the very opposite; he didn't want to live forever, watching those around him grow old and die while he remained as he was.

"I'm guessing suicide isn't an option, anymore, is it?" He asked her.

"No, I'm afraid it isn't," she told him, and he turned away from her to lean against a pillar. "You're a unique case, Shinji. The first immortal of the Twenty-First Century. It's necessary for you to learn how to control and conceal your newfound abilities…until the time of the Gathering that is to come."

"Gathering?" He asked, turning back to face her. "What Gathering?"

"When there are only a handful of us left in the world, we will all feel an irresistible pull to a place far away from us, where we must all fight to the last…until there is only one remaining…who will claim something known only as the Prize."

"The Prize?"

"It could be anything, Shinji, and whatever it is and how it's used will depend solely upon the one who is the last one. Which is why it's stressed how…in the end, there can be only one…and in the end, there will be only one. I can only hope that whoever that one is…is one or kindness and morality…and not one of cruelty and ruthlessness."

Yet, this didn't stop Shinji from thinking that, just hopefully, the Prize could also be viewed as the only way to reclaim the life of normality that his maternal aunt took from him when she killed him. If he won the Prize, he could be like everyone else again. He could…live, grow up and grow old…and just die like others could and would.

-x-

A liar. That's what Gendo was called by his son after their meeting ended prematurely. His own son called him nothing more than a liar…simply because he wouldn't tell him the truth to what was going on around NERV with the Angels. It was…infuriating to be called out on such a cold truth…and further aggravating because Shinji expressed that a person that was incapable or unwilling to be truthful…was not someone that could be trusted with anything, including another's life.

" _I am telling you the truth,"_ he had told Shinji as the little boy walked away from the adults in his office.

" _The only truth you've told me is that you won't tell the truth…even though you can,"_ Shinji had retorted kindly to him. _"But if you won't be honest, then everything else that you can say won't mean much of anything. You can either tell the truth when you're ready to own up to it…or one can seek the truth for themselves instead of being fed the lies that are spewed."_

And now, in his office, Gendo was left pondering how to manipulate his son to do his bidding if he knew what the truth was in the few lies he tried to get him to accept as the truth. But it wasn't just the way he said anything he said or the way he held onto his tanto as if waiting for a reason to use it to defend himself, but it was the way he looked at him. The way his son looked at him was like he had gone through experiences far greater than anything he himself could've gone through, and they made him seem smarter than he didn't look it.

"Damn him," he sighed, holding his head in his hands on his desk. "Damn him."

-x-

"…So I take it that they won't be living together?" Ritsuko asked one of the bridge technicians, Makoto Hyuga, discovering that Shinji wouldn't be living with his father, even though he could. "Are we even sure this is right?"

"Is anything about anything we've done so far been right?" Hyuga asked her. "I can't even imagine myself taking the boy serious because of the way he looks and sounds, but to believe that his old man's not being truthful to him of all people… The worst of it is that it was his father who left him with his maternal relatives…and one of them tried to kill him four years ago. I can't imagine that he blames his father a little for that. But…from a phone call the boy made from a public phone in the hospital, he doesn't seem to aim on living alone…except he complained about how the city doesn't have any temples or shrines."

-x-

"…You called your paternal relatives to come here?" Misato asked him.

"Yeah," Shinji told her as they were in the elevator leaving the underground base. "I trust them. I know who they are. I don't know who that man that was supposed to be my father is."

"And you believe that everything he said to you about the Angels and the end of the human race is nothing more than a lie?"

"Nobody does anything without there being a reason for the action. That creature you called an Angel was no exception. It had a reason for showing up when it did, but now that it's dead, we won't know why it showed up. If it hated human beings, it could've destroyed many cities before showing up where I was when you came and got me. It could've destroyed those fighter planes that were shooting at it before someone made the decision to burn the city in a large fire in hopes of destroying it. If there's any truth to what it was doing in the first place, you adults that feared it outright made the illogical choice to have me try and kill it before that truth could be learned."

When he said all of that, Misato just wanted to slap him right there and then. But she couldn't deny his logic for a minute. Everything he said was right about what occurred; the Angel could've attacked the city like the monsters in the fiction films and comic books, but it didn't so much as smash any large number of buildings when it showed up, and it didn't attack any humans until after they attacked it. And the fact that it just kept on going until it reached Tokyo-3, like there was something calling it to that place of all places.

Ding. The elevator stopped and Shinji stepped out…but then stood in front of a woman as young as Ms. Katsuragi was, but dressed in some work uniform with a tan and dull coloring.

She had short, pageboy hair of the brunette coloring and hazel eyes, but her greatest feature in Shinji's mind was her unpleasant expression.

Misato, as she stepped out of the elevator, noticed how both Shinji and the other woman seemed tense to be in each other's presence, like they couldn't stand one another right now.

The woman then looked up at her and then back at Shinji…and then walked away.

"What was that all about?" She asked Shinji.

"Nothing," he responded, and then walked away.

-x-

"…At least he considered staying awhile," said Fuyutsuki to Gendo in his office. "You could've told him the truth."

"If he knew the truth, he wouldn't accept what we're trying to do here," Gendo responded.

"Something tells me that he knows a bit more than one his age should know, and he knows who tells the truth or not. And you were out of line when you questioned how he was still so small after all this time…and you've not seen him in over ten years. A lot can happen in that length of time. He could've experienced staying up late, maybe not drinking enough milk or eating enough vegetables or whatever. It has been known to happen."

"Where is he now?"

"Captain Katsuragi escorted him to a motel. I guess if he tried anything, he wouldn't be taken serious…and he didn't want to live in one of the barracks."

-x-

Not being taken serious was one thing when it came to getting a motel room, but it wasn't the reason that Shinji wanted to stay in a motel until his paternal aunt and uncle came to the city. No, his reason was for a different matter. And it was a matter he needed to deal with soon…before it dealt with him.

 _That woman,_ he thought, locking the door to his motel room and making sure he could avoid any surveillance cameras that were present outside the building. _She knows who I am and will no doubt be after me now. What choice do I have if there's no room for reason? The first guy didn't listen when I tried to talk him out of trying to hurt me or those kids he kidnapped off the streets._

He then opened the back window and climbed out into the night.

-x-

"Man, oh, man, Shinji was one of a bunch of kidnapped victims from three years ago," went a female technician known as Maya Ibuki to her fellow technicians when she read the past news articles. "Some sicko kidnapped seventeen kids and he was one of them. The police didn't show up to rescue them until three days later when they found out the guy lived in a warehouse. By the time they showed up, though, the guy had already been decapitated."

"Decapitated?" A man by the name of Shigeru Aoba questioned. "There have been a dozen murder cases in which someone's head was found severed from their body."

"Yeah, and from what was written in the article, all each child that was interviewed by the police in the aftermath claimed the person that killed their kidnapper before he could do worse to them was a woman that just showed up and then took his head off before disappearing."

"The guy was beheaded by a woman?" Hyuga questioned. "Ouch."

"What made it difficult for the police to look into, however, was that none of the kidnapped children wanted to identify the woman. Even Shinji, it seems, wanted nothing to do with any investigation that might've led to the woman's identity. It says here that he tried to talk the man out of hurting him and the other kids, only to be kicked in the stomach and left struggling to breathe on the floor." Maya explained. "That's just awful."

"Can't blame him for trying, though," Shigeru expressed. "He was hit in the back of his head and stabbed in the chest by a woman and later kicked in the stomach by a man, both adults older than he was at the time and both were cruel to him."

"Maybe all that cruelty done to him was what kept him from growing up," Maya suggested.

-x-

It was an underground parking garage in an old neighborhood, but the good thing of it was that were no cameras present. This allowed Shinji some relief. Some…but not enough for the bad feeling he always got when he knew he wasn't alone in a given location, even when surrounded by people. As he walked past the parked cars, the feeling intensified even greater.

"Shinji Ikari," a female voice went, and he stopped and turned around, facing the woman from earlier. "I'm sorry it had to be you."

"Miyuki Aoi," he addressed her. "So…how long have you been this way?"

"Twenty-five…for two-hundred-fifty-seven years. You?"

"Ten…for four years."

"You're still just a foundling. Still, I can't be sympathetic, even to you. That's not why I am here. This is the way it's gotta be."

"Miss Aoi…it doesn't have to be this way. We can both walk away from this."

"Now, you know that's not how the Game works. If I win, I may be remembered for eternity as a goddess among people. That's why I want the Prize."

Slice! Shinji quickly backed away from her, just in time to avoid her weapon of choice, a rapier with a serrated edge on one of its sides.

"If this is truly how it has to be," he sighed, unsheathing his tanto. "Just answer me one more question: Were you aiming for me earlier?"

"There can be only one! I will kill any that stand in my way, for better or for worse. I killed my parents and my brother the month after I died by the man they sold me to in revenge for discarding me. You're not the first child I've killed, but I doubt you'll be the last!"

She ran towards him again and slammed the blade down on him.

CLASH! Shinji blocked with his tanto, surprising the both of them with his unnatural strength.

"Aaaaurgh!" He grunted, pushing her back. "Aah!"

He dashed towards her and swung his small blade with swift fury.

Miyuki moved back, and Shinji cut through a concrete pillar with overwhelming force that it sent fragments flying everywhere.

"Ha!" She shouted, trying to stab him in order to slow him down. "Urgh!"

But Shinji was faster than she was, jumping on the cars and pillars, even managing to cut her shoulders and legs, but not deep enough to cause any severing.

"Hmph!" Miyuki grunted, back-flipping away as fast as she could as Shinji gave chase in the garage. "I thought killing you wasn't going to be this hard!"

"You can blame it on the creature I was made to fight!" Shinji told her, jumping high into the air and nearly striking her jaw, but only hitting the ground, sending chunks of it flying into the air.

Suddenly, the sprinklers went off, showering everything in water.

Being reduced to relying on his sense of sight now that the running water complicated his sense of hearing, Shinji ran up onto a blue car and jumped onto a neighboring white car.

Miyuki, using the water to her advantage, continued to back-flip away to a safe distance. She had to admit that she had hoped that because Shinji was such a small child, this duel would be an easy win for her; she knew that child immortals were so rare because they didn't survive long like their adult counterparts did, unable to obtain great strength or speed because their petite and immature bodies couldn't handle the stress. But Shinji was different; he was able to dodge her attacks and send equally-damaging attacks at her. Somehow, the defeat of the Angel had made him a force to be reckoned with, but she knew that if she took his head, she would have the power he had obtained, making her stronger. It might've cost NERV a pilot, but she would be one less immortal adversary.

Now a safe distance, she stood up and looked at him in the safety of the shadows, watching as he stood on the roof of a car, trying to find her. She smirked at his hopelessness as she tightened her grip on her rapier; if she timed her move right, she would claim his head in less than a minute.

"Whoa!" She heard Shinji gasp, and then he disappeared from sight.

 _He must've fell off,_ she realized, deciding to change her strategy and run to where he fell while the opportunity presented itself.

Shinji, having lost his footing on the roof, fell and hit the ground. While he quickly recovered, he had lost his tanto under the black car nearby.

 _I don't want to end like this,_ he thought, crawling under the car to get his weapon. _I don't want to die trapped in the body of a ten-year-old boy. I want to grow up and grow old, to be taken serious by others, to find true love and everything!_

It was when his life was on the line that Shinji owned up to his own reasons for wanting the Prize that he believed would make him mortal once again.

 _Come on, come on, come on,_ he got desperate, reaching for his tanto.

Once he got it, he crawled under a van and just narrowly avoided being seen by Miyuki. When she moved further up the row of cars, Shinji crawled out from under the van and got behind her.

"Hey!" He shouted at her, brandishing his tanto. "Over here, bitch!"

Miyuki turned around and looked down at him.

"You should've stayed wherever you hid," she told him.

"If I did that, I wouldn't get very far."

She raised her rapier and charged towards him, determined to get his powers and become stronger than ever.

Shinji ran towards her…and then jumped down to his right side and slid in between her legs, using his blade to slice through her left leg, feeling it carve through the flesh and bone.

"Aaaurgh!" He grunted, rolling back to his feet, watching her fall to the ground, losing her sword. "Aaaurgh!"

Miyuki had no time to reach her rapier when Shinji moved quicker than any of her previous adversaries, and all she saw was his small blade.

SLASH! Even though the blade was small, it was enough to cut through the flesh and bone of the human neck, separating head from body and sending it flying under a different row of cars.

Scrape! Shinji's tanto got wedged into a wall, and he pulled it out as the sprinklers stopped.

"Forgive me," he sobbed mildly; even though he hated this part of being an immortal and the Game itself, he still had remorse for any immortals that he beheaded just to survive. "Forgive me for what I've done."

Miyuki's body then started glowing and levitating off the ground, releasing several surges of electrical energy that transferred through the cars, turning them on and causing them to move forward slightly.

"Aah!" Shinji gasped, feeling the power and knowledge that was his right transfer into him as he was levitated three feet into the air. "Aaaah!"

He saw all that Miyuki had done with her immortality, the hidden locations of resources she stashed away, the friends she either made or betrayed, the immortals she beheaded for their power and knowledge (and at least seven of them had been children older than he was), her access codes to NERV, her bank accounts, social media information… Everything about her was now his alone to know.

FLASH! The lights on the ceiling and in the cars all shattered as the power died out, and Shinji fell to his knees.

"Aah…aah…aah…" He panted; this often always happened whenever a Quickening was received by the victor of each battle between immortals, but he would recover in a few minutes. _In the end, there can be only one._

He re-sheathed his tanto and ran to get out of the garage. It would only be a matter of time before anyone came and found Miyuki's remains and an investigation came soon after, whether it would be listed as another ongoing criminal case or another unsolvable beheading. Whichever way it went, he needed be kept out of it completely; mortals weren't meant to know everything about the shadow life of immortals.

-x-

 _Swordsmanship_

Shinji had to admit that, even though he'd never been around any swords in his young life, the underground bunker that his aunt and uncle had contained an impressive selection of various swords. There had to be every type of sword that existed on the walls and on display…or at least the ones he'd seen in a few films.

"Your swordsmanship training will progress further when you choose your own sword, Shinji," his aunt, whom he now knew as Akira Rokubungi, an immortal born over twenty-four-hundred years ago, told him. "So choose your sword, Shinji, and make it a part of your life. Make it a part of you. Treat it as you would your best friend. It may one day be all that you have to rely upon."

Shinji almost considered choosing a katana with a serpentine hilt, but then hesitated.

"Is there a right or wrong choice?" He asked her.

"Any sword is the right sword, so long as it works for you. The sword has to be based on one's preference, their personality, suited to the way they fight or defend themselves. The wrong choice is just letting your sword wane when there is danger around you. Whenever you use your sword after a certain period, you should always take care to maintain your blade."

Akira then tossed him a small blade, a tanto dagger wrapped in a green sheath with an ornate dragon on both sides.

"It's always a good thing to have a backup in case your primary is unavailable," she explained. "The sword should also be accommodated to one's size and weight, their arm length and will to make it to the end."

That's when Shinji saw a sword that he felt was the best choice for him, and picked it up with his left hand. It was a jian, a Chinese sword, with a silver hilt and gold cross-guard, taller than he was, but he raised it up above his head.

"I think I'll try my luck with this one," he told her.

"I never pictured you for the jian sword type," she expressed. "I wish you the best of luck in your future with it."

To be continued…

A/N: In case anyone got confused, Shinji does feel remorse for any life he ends, even when they intend to end his, and his only reason for wanting the Prize is because he hates being immortal. Many would give for immortality, but Shinji would give for just one life.


	3. Hidden Power

Creation began on 11-21-16

Creation ended on 11-30-16

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Immortal Ikari: Hidden Power

"…So, Shinji, how are you doing?" Misato asked him, two weeks later, watching him in the Entry Plug that had recently been redesigned to accommodate the boy's size better.

"It's all the same," he told her.

"I meant with your new school and everything," she clarified; it had been a week since NERV registered him to the middle school his fellow pilot, Rei Ayanami attended.

"I have unwanted popularity there because of my height," he sighed; ever since he stepped into the classroom the day he arrived, every other student had to lower their heads just to meet his gaze. "You put me in an elementary school, I wouldn't fit in there, either."

He couldn't lie about his age, he couldn't pretend to be an elementary school student or suffered from a growing disorder like dwarfism. And he couldn't say that he was just trapped in the ageless body of his ten-year-old self because his maternal aunt tried to kill him and instead just triggered his immortal state. No, for Shinji, it was simply the way things had to be for now.

Misato knew what he said was true, but in any other case, having him in an elementary school seemed more appropriate than for him to be in the middle school.

"It would've been easier to just let me homeschool him instead," went his paternal aunt to Misato, reminding the woman that one of his guardians was here to support Shinji. "He'd also have less time to focus on homework and more time to play video games or something else of the sort."

"Eh-heh," Shinji chuckled; of course, this wasn't a total truth, but a piece of the truth.

With each Quickening obtained by an immortal, their educational prowess was amplified, enabling them to know more than what was ever thought possible because the immortals that originally possessed or had obtained this knowledge from other immortals had it. But these sudden jumps in intellect also meant that Shinji was alienated further from others.

"So…you and your husband actually convinced some people that were around when the city was under construction to begin building a set of shrines on the outskirts of the city?" Ritsuko, who was also present when Shinji was undergoing Eva testing, asked her.

"Yes," Akira answered her. "Couldn't get the permits for building any inside the city, though. Shinji was disappointed to hear this."

"A city without some shred of holiness is just unpleasant," went Shinji.

 _Why all the concern about the lack of religion in any city like this one?_ Misato and Ritsuko both wondered, and evaluated the Third Child's synchronization ratio with Unit-01.

-x-

"…So, she's a distant relative of yours?" Fuyutsuki asked Gendo later that day in his office, having met Akira Rokubungi and praising her for having taken Shinji into her home after the endangerment of his life by his maternal relations.

"My parents, whoever they were, never mentioned anything about her to me when I packed my things and left home," Gendo expressed; he had nothing nice to say about any of his relatives, alive, dead or nonexistent. "And she just pops up out of nowhere and wants to look after the Third Child?"

"Well, you clearly weren't going to, Ikari. And your son trusts her. She didn't even want money from you or the Ikaris to take care of him."

"I don't trust her to be just someone the boy trusts," Gendo explained; he didn't want for Shinji to have any sentiments towards most people, even a relative he himself had no awareness of. "She just accepts that he hasn't aged a day since the attempt on his life was made."

"Ikari, could it be that…you're still angry at your son because he believes you to be withholding the truth from him and doesn't believe any of what you say to him?"

Gendo didn't confirm or deny this tidbit of information, but because he didn't, it made sense that he would resent his son for choosing to disbelieve his words. All he told him was that fifteen years ago, the Angels tried to destroy mankind, and that fifteen years later, they have come back to finish what they started with at the South Pole, and that the only way they can survive is using the Evangelions made to fight them. But Shinji didn't believe much of any of this and told him that there was more to the facts than he wasn't divulging and would ascertain the truth, one way or another.

" _And when I do find out whatever it is that you're not telling me,"_ Shinji added that day, _"that's when I'll know for certain that a line so unforgivable was crossed not too long ago…and who crossed it on purpose for whatever reason."_

And Fuyutsuki wouldn't deny that when the boy said that, he was afraid of him right then and there, regardless of his youthful appearance. There was just something about the ten-year-old-looking boy that was…unnatural.

-x-

"With any luck, the northern temple will be the first one completed," Akira told Shinji as they walked up the stone steps to the eastern temple that was being built by the construction workers.

"Until at least one of them is completed, this city has no official holy ground," Shinji expressed as they reached their destination to the sight where several workers were hard at work on assembling the basic temple that was to serve as a place of prayer (while serving as a safety net for immortals to keep from being beheaded.

"But while we're here watching the work in-progress take place, Shinji, do you care to confess your sins, whatever they may be?"

"My great sin, Akira…is the one I commit only to protect myself against others. It used to be only five. Now, another is added to the collective…and a different one that doesn't make sense."

They were speaking in code because Shinji had informed her that he feared they were being watched by some men in black suits sent by his father; by speaking in code of any beheadings and Quickenings, they were able to protect themselves better. This allowed Akira to understand that when her nephew said that there used to be five and then six and another that didn't make sense, she knew he was referring to how many immortals he had defeated…and how many of these creatures NERV called Angels he had also defeated and discovered that they triggered Quickenings, as well, far stronger than what was normally experienced.

"Another regret?" She asked him.

"It's always regret when we could've turned the other way," he explained.

She didn't blame him for feeling this way. It was a constant war between light and darkness when it came to immortals…and it was always a risk that any Quickening received could turn you bad if the defeated was also bad.

"At least you don't have to concern yourself with math, anymore, right?" She tried to joke.

"Or geography," he sighed.

-x-

"…I've ran every test on the Third Child's blood samples, and there's nothing to explain how he has remained the way he is for four years," Ritsuko explained to Gendo and Fuyutsuki. "Nothing unusual in his cellular activity, electrolyte activity, anything. Excluding his current state, he's no different from a normal, ten-year-old boy. He's even had all of his vaccinations."

"If we can't figure out the reason, the Committee will demand an interview with him," said Fuyutsuki, "but it's unlikely that he can explain why, either, and just accepts that he's simply unchanged from the attempt on his life."

"We'll tell the old men that we're still looking at the Third Child's blood for a medical explanation," Gendo uttered; he didn't want SEELE finding out what was up with the boy before he did.

"Ikari," went Fuyutsuki, "that's deliberate disinformation."

"On a lighter note, his synchronization with Unit-01 has improved," Ritsuko informed them.

-x-

Returning to their apartment complex on the outskirts of Tokyo-3, Shinji and Akira stopped and looked across the street at a neighboring rooftop…where they could see three men in black suits.

As Akira sighed, Shinji expressed, "I know, I hate them, too. They're a pain in the ass."

"They're a pain in the neck, too," she told him.

They stepped into their unit…but then Shinji stepped back out and shouted, "If I catch you jerks peeping in the apartment, I'm taking a knife up your asses! You hear me?!"

The three suits looked at each other and then one of them took out a cell phone.

"Eh-heh-heh!" Akira's husband chuckled as she sat down at the kitchen table whilst Shinji shut the door. "We just had to get those American films."

"I've been to America many times," Akira expressed. "If you want real excitement, it doesn't get any real than the drama that occurs there. Except for the last time we went."

Taking a year-long leave of absence from their dwelling in what remained of Osaka, Akira and Takuya were hoping that their time in Tokyo-3 wouldn't be a long one because of Akira's distant relative that put shame on their family.

"Again, many thanks for coming here, you two," Shinji praised them as he looked into the refrigerator and grabbed three bottles of water.

"Don't mention it," said Takuya, "and if it turns out that your father is nothing but trouble, we can always use the rest of our time away from home to venture elsewhere."

"I'm pretty much going out on a limb and hoping that he will tell me the truth that I know of, but if he doesn't, then all bets are off," Shinji explained his agenda; if his father refused to explain what was really going on, then he would cease his service to NERV as a pilot for the Evangelion.

"And what is really going on here that he wouldn't divulge to you?" Akira asked him as she accepted a bottle of water from him.

"The end of the world," he expressed, sliding the other bottle to his uncle. "That creature NERV made me face, its defeat triggered a Quickening that was far greater than the ones I previously went through. It called itself Sachiel, one of Adam's children, tasked with finding his father, which he assumed that NERV had in their possession, only to discover that it's actually Lilith, an equal to Adam, that NERV will exploit to unmake everything that already exists. A…forbidden union between Adam and Lilith would result in this."

"But that's insane," went Takuya. "Who'd want to…unmake the world?"

"Can you think of one person that would?"

"If we're talking about Gendo," Akira went.

"His reason for doing so would be his inexcusable beef with who he calls God for his wife's so-called death over ten years ago," Shinji told them, coming clean with all the Angel Quickening showed him. "But her death was nothing but bogus. My mother… She planned her displacement the whole time, wanting to show me a bright future for all of mankind. But I don't want any part of that future, whatsoever. She put herself in the Eva with absolutely no intention of ever coming back, even if nothing goes the way she or her husband wants them to. I can't forgive her for leaving me alone like that…just like I can't forgive her husband for casting me aside like that and unwilling to apologize for their sins."

"So…so long as they can't implement a forbidden union between Adam and Lilith, they can't unmake the world?" Takuya asked him.

"That's right, but they want to destroy the other Angels to ensure that they can't get in their way," he explained further. "Plus, we're likely to have other things to deal with than a bunch of massive, genocidal egomaniacs."

"I know exactly what you mean," Akira told him.

-x-

"…So he verbally threatened some Section Two agents that were there," said Misato to Ritsuko in Central Dogma. "I don't see how they can take him serious. He's tiny."

"It's what he threatened to do them if they tried to peep in his unit," Ritsuko told her. "He said he'd take a knife to each of them."

"Still, he's the pilot of Unit-01. He could at least tolerate that they're only to ensure he's kept safe from harm or being kidnapped."

"Except he questions who would want to harm or kidnap a worthless ten-year-old whose parents are never around. It's like he's trying to be convincing that he's ten, not fourteen."

Suddenly, the alarms went off and everyone was at work to ascertain the situation.

"It's another Angel!" Hyuga shouted, and the holographic monitors displayed the new creature, resembling a massive, pinkish-red squid hovering above water, approaching Japan.

"What's its ETA?" Misato demanded.

"One hour and forty-two minutes," Shigeru answered her.

-x-

Scrape! Shinji, after another round of swordsmanship training with Akira at a park (after losing the black suits that were following him), sharpened his jian after cleaning it.

Knock-knock! A knock at his door came.

"Shinji, that was NERV," Akira told him at his door. "They say they need you, immediately."

He sighed and set his sharpening stone down and sheathed his primary weapon before putting it away and taking out his tanto.

"If it's another Angel, I know just what to do this time." He told them.

"Just try not to lose your head, Shinji," Takuya told him. "If these Angels are as immortal as you say, that would mean you're as vulnerable to them as you would be against a regular immortal."

"I have no plans on losing my head, Uncle."

-x-

"…So, just expand your AT-Field and use the Pellet Rifle to neutralize the Angel," Misato instructed Shinji.

"Uh, yeah, about that strategy," he responded inside the Entry Plug, "are you sure about the use of firearms? This isn't something that seems very…healthy."

On the bridge in Central Dogma, Ritsuko looked at his aunt and uncle with a questionable expression.

"Shinji helped me in raising further awareness in the dangers of having firearms around children," his uncle explained. "He immediately developed an aversion to guns of any sort."

"But…he's fourteen," went Misato, as the Eva was catapulted to the surface. "How can he be uncomfortable with firearms?"

"Age is irrelevant when it comes to what makes one comfortable or uncomfortable," Akira explained. "People can be in their forties and still be disgusted by germs. Some people of today's generation can be disgusted by anything, ranging from gang violence to… Well, sex, even."

"Eh-heh," Misato chuckled hoarsely; she was hoping that Akira was just kidding with the sex part.

-x-

Shinji, upon seeing the Angel hovering past the hillsides, raised the Pellet Rifle, but despite having the training to use it, found himself hesitating from using it.

 _Guns make you uncomfortable, Shinji,_ he thought, clutching his tanto to his chest. _Even if you were ordered to, you can't violate your principles. But this doesn't go against what you spent the last four years of your immortal life learning._

He made Unit-01 drop the rifle and opened its left shoulder pylon to release its Progressive Knife.

-x-

"Unit-01 has cast aside its Pellet Rifle and unsheathed its Progressive Knife," went Maya.

"Shinji what are you doing?" Misato questioned. "Pick up the rifle and fire at the Angel."

But Unit-01 brandished its knife and ran towards the Fourth Angel.

SLAM! The purple Eva ran into the Angel as it stood up and unleashed a pair of glowing whips.

SLICE! One of the whips was cut off by Unit-01, causing the Angel to shriek in pain.

But with its remaining whip, it wrapped around Unit-01's left leg and lifted it up and threw it against the hillside!

"Urgh!" Shinji groaned in the plug, fortunate that the new seat came with straps to keep him in place. _Okay, Shinji, end this quickly._

"Shinji, don't move!" Akira's voice shouted over the intercom.

"What?" He responded.

"There are three kids near you!"

He looked to his right side of the hill…and saw three kids that he recognized from the middle school he was assigned to.

 _What are they doing here?!_ He wondered, looking back to the Angel as it approached the hill and raised its remaining whip. _Oh, Christ!_

Grip! Unit-01 grabbed the whip as it was thrust towards it with its right arm, but was unable to prevent it from penetrating its armored waist and out its back.

"Gaaaurgh! Aaurgh!" Shinji gagged, once more viewing his immortality as a curse alongside the negative drawbacks of being linked to the Evangelion. "This…is…bullshit."

-x-

 _Something true, not false_

"Please, make Mr. Ikari feel welcomed during his time here," the elderly teacher expressed to the class, and the students were all staring down at Shinji.

Shinji walked over to an empty desk by the window at the back of the classroom and sat in it.

 _Let the daily torment of the first day begin,_ he thought as the teacher started his rambling of the Second Impact cover story.

He took out his iPad and began checking his email accounts and set up his school messaging account, where he received his first instant message.

 _Did you hear about the giant robot about a week ago?_ The message read.

He looked up and noticed, to his mild disgust, that the entire student body was looking at him.

"What?" He asked them.

"Dude, you're like, like a pipsqueak," a female student told him.

"I have a calcium deficiency," he lied.

"Are you sure you didn't skip a few grades for being a child prodigy?" A male student asked him.

"Oh, it's only the first day, and it already sucks. I told them to just let me go to the elementary school where I wouldn't attract attention. But no, they say I need to go to school with others my age."

Beep! A repeated message came on his iPad; it was the same message from before.

 _No,_ he typed and sent back to the messenger. _Why?_

 _I was wondering if you knew the pilot of the robot,_ the sender responded.

 _You're looking up a shit creek,_ Shinji told them.

"What?!" He looked up and saw a brown-haired, thirteen-fourteen-year-old boy with freckles and glasses, standing up at his desk and pointing a finger at him. "You can't talk like that!"

Shinji merely glared at him and expressed, "Sit down. You're embarrassing yourself."

"He does this often," said a dark-haired boy in a track team uniform. "He's an otaku."

Suddenly, the other students got up and surrounded Shinji, asking him questions about his age, his appearance and if there was some secret to looking as good as he did.

"Everyone, sit down!" A girl with brown hair wrapped in pigtails.

-x-

"…What are his classmates doing out there?" Akira asked Misato after they got the identities of the three teens.

"They must've snuck out of their designated shelter," she suggested.

Meanwhile, Shinji, having to concern himself with the safety of his classmates and the impending doom brought upon him by the Fourth Angel, had to make a choice right now. Move from where he was, knowing that such an action could cause repercussions for his classmates…or possibly lose his head at the nonexistent hands of a fellow immortal and embrace his death a second time, knowing that it would be permanent.

"Oh, I'm gonna get my ass chewed for doing this, but it's better than the alternatives," he muttered, deciding to go with a third option that deviated from NERV's so-called protocols.

The back of the Eva's armor opened up and the Entry Plug stuck out.

"What the…" The freckled boy with glasses reacted.

"You three get in here! Now!" They heard a little boy's voice coming from inside the plug.

They ran towards the Eva and climbed into the plug.

"Aah, my camera!" The freckled boy gasped, more concerned for his video camera than his safety.

"What is this water?!" The tracksuit boy asked.

"Mmm!" The pigtailed girl moaned, trying to hold her breath, disbelieving they could breathe in this liquid substance.

"Shinji, what are you doing?! This is against protocol!" They all heard a female voice inside the plug with them.

"Screw the protocols! No time for rules!" Shinji responded, closing the plug and moving the Eva. "No other alternative works for me!"

"Is he for real?" Ritsuko asked Akira and Takuya.

"I don't see you coming up with anything to keep his classmates from getting harmed," Takuya expressed, though fearing that Shinji would be found out if they discovered he was immortal.

Unit-01 brandished the knife like a small sword and took a defensive stance.

"What is going on?" The pigtailed girl asked, unable to hold her breath and followed her fellow classmates in speaking. "Shinji?"

"I knew it!" The freckled boy went. "It was you the whole time!"

"Not now, Aida-San," Shinji addressed the boy. _Dammit! Nothing is ever so simple!_

As the Angel regenerated a new whip, the Eva dashed forward, working through the agony that was the other whip piercing its waist, its intention very clear.

 _Please, let this work,_ Shinji prayed, wanting to keep his secret hidden from NERV.

PIERCE! The Eva stabbed the Angel in what had to be its head, and forced the vibrating blade down to its core.

"Aaaaurgh!" Shinji groaned, finding this harder to do than in the simulations. "Aaaurgh!"

The Angel raised its newly-regenerated whip and wrapped it around Unit-01's neck, burning at the protective armor around it.

"Gaaaurgh! Hurgh! Aaaurgh!" Shinji felt like he was choked and burned at the same time; not even his immortal healing factor was helping to dull the pain he was in.

CRACK! The blade reached the side of the core and began chipping away at its defenses.

The tracksuit boy looked at Shinji and saw his eyes turning bloodshot-red and the skin around his neck looking like something was eating at it like acid. It actually terrified him.

Blood started spurting from his neck!

"Aah!" He gasped, backing away from the seat, but unknowingly touched a switch on the left side.

-x-

"…We just lost contact with the plug!" Maya informed the bridge crew.

"One of them must've flipped the switch off," Misato expressed, seeing the Eva continue its attack on the Angel.

The energy whip impaling the Eva lifted up behind its back and turn sharp; it looked as though the Angel was going to pierce the Eva's head from behind.

SLASH! The Eva had managed to cut all the way through the Angel's core, along with the majority of the creature's "head", sending the pieces falling to the ground.

The energy whips ceased their glowing and turned into some sort of diamond material, which cracked and shattered from the Eva, and the Eva itself fell to its knees and palms.

"The Angel has gone silent," Maya told them.

Before anyone could suggest sending a rescue team to secure Unit-01, the Angel's remains glowed and levitated from off the ground…along with the Eva, just like the first sortie with the Third Angel! Electrical energy surged from both behemoths and sparked a fire that spread across the hillside.

The consoles sparked and the technicians got up and backed away from them as they shorted out.

"What the Hell was that?!" Shigeru Aoba gasped.

The holographic systems faded and the entire command center was left in the dark on the Eva.

 _That was a Quickening,_ thought Akira in realization, looking at her husband in fear. "What happened? Is our nephew okay?"

-x-

Hikari Horaki, Toji Suzuhara and Kensuke Aida were shocked beyond belief at the sight in front of them. The sight that was Shinji Ikari's body surrounded by electrical energy, screaming in what had to be immense pain.

"Aaaaaaaaaurgh!" Shinji howled as the new Quickening surged through him, augmenting all that he was, only it was worse than the previous one granted by the Third Angel's defeat because he was conscious during it. "Aaaaaurgh!"

The three held onto each other in fear as the electrical energy spread out across the plug interior.

Strangely though, none of the electrical discharges ever came close to any of them; Hikari saw a discharge coming at her head, only for it be redirected to a different part of the interior, like they were being careful not to bring harm to the other three passengers, just the little boy.

Thud! They heard and felt the impact of hitting something…and the power show surrounding Shinji ended, leaving him a wreck, crouched in the seat.

"Uh, Shinji?" Toji went, slowly approaching the boy. "Are you alright?"

Hikari slowly approached Shinji, as well and raised her left hand to touch his back.

"Don't touch me!" Shinji told them, and they backed away from him.

It sounded like he was sobbing; whatever just happened to him must've been agonizing.

He then turned to face them, panting, his face stained with agony.

"What were you doing out there?" He asked them.

Toji saw the flesh around his neck slowly looking better…and then looking like nothing ever happened to it at all.

"It was Kensuke's idea to go out of the shelter and videotape the battle," he revealed why they were outside and put in danger.

"I was just doing my duties as Class Representative," said Hikari to them; as the representative, it was her responsibility to keep track of each of the students of her class. "They left the shelter, I have to make sure they get back safely."

Shinji undid his straps and pressed a button on the seat, ejecting the Entry Plug, flushing out the LCL.

As the hatch opened up, Shinji asked them, "Just how much of what just happened in here did you three see?"

"Your neck healed fast," went Toji.

"You were surrounded by electricity!" Hikari gasped.

"The surges fixed my camera," added Kensuke.

Holding his head with his right hand, Shinji had to assume that they saw every last second of the Quickening, meaning they only knew one aspect of his situation, but that didn't protect him from the fallout if they told anyone else about it.

"Please," he went, "don't tell anyone about anything that happened in here. Please."

"But…what if it's serious?" Hikari questioned.

"I'll explain everything to you later," he pleaded. "Please, just forget everything that happened in here. It's better that nobody knows anything about it. It's not for everyone to know who, what, where, when, why or how."

Then, as quickly as he could climb out of the plug, he fell.

"Oh!" Hikari gasped, quickly climbing out and picking Shinji up; she was surprised to find him quite light-weighted for a ten-year-old, likely due to his size. "Are you alright?"

"Just…need…rest…" He responded, and then passed out.

-x-

Misato Katsuragi wasn't convinced that it was all a coincidence with what occurred at the end of the second Angel attack. While the damages caused by the battle were contained to just the hillside that had been scorched to the soil, the damages to the control consoles were so critical that they needed to be replaced, which would take a week to do so. And then, there was the Third Child and his classmates who would need to be questioned and debriefed on the consequences of what happened.

She was standing outside the recovery room Shinji was placed in while his paternal aunt and uncle were with him; the doctors just say that he over-exerted himself and just needed rest.

 _At least he wasn't holding onto that tanto of his so tightly,_ she thought, walking away.

In addition, the damages to Unit-01 were moderate, requiring two weeks to repair, but what left the commander in disbelief of the Eva ever working properly again was what the rescue team found inside the plug after they showed up to retrieve Shinji, and that was who Misato saw in the next room that was occupied by the other subject. It was a woman, in her late-twenties or early-thirties, with brownish hair and an angular facial structure; to Misato and those that saw the woman, she was a dead ringer for an older version of Rei Ayanami, sans the blue hair and pale skin tone.

 _What is going on here?_ Misato wondered.

-x-

Fuyutsuki was beyond shocked when he and Gendo were informed of the fifth person found inside Unit-01. He didn't think it was possible, even if something beyond human understanding could have had something to do with it. And yet, there was no denying the proof when they were informed of a naked woman found inside the plug. Somehow, and they needed to know how exactly, Yui Ikari had been restored to her physical body, made whole, in the aftermath of the Fourth Angel attack.

To be continued…

A/N: I bet none of you were expecting that, but don't expect any lovey-dovey behavior so quickly. There is more to come soon.


	4. Pride and Punishment

Creation began on 11-30-16

Creation ended on 12-12-16

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Immortal Ikari: Pride and Punishment

Shinji awoke after what felt like a terrible night of sleep, and his first reaction was searching the bedsheets for his tanto.

"Here," went Akira, holding his tanto.

"Thank you," he praised her. "How long was I out?"

"Three hours," answered Takuya. "You really needed the rest."

"Do you remember anything?" Akira asked him, gesturing with her eyes that the door to the room was open.

"Just…letting my classmates into the plug," he explained, being simple. "Everything else is a blur, like garbled tape in the VCR."

"We'll go see if they'll permit you to leave now that you've awakened," said Takuya to him as he and his wife got up.

"And if they won't?" Shinji asked them.

"You're still coming home with us," Akira told him.

-x-

"…Because the intercom was switched off, we can't tell what happened in the Entry Plug after the Angel was defeated," went Ritsuko to Gendo and Fuyutsuki in the former's office. "We've interviewed the three children, and they all made the same claim: The Eva went dark after the Angel was defeated and the Third Child passed out after unlocking the plug to vacate."

"Is it possible that they were lying?" Gendo suggested.

"It's possible, but they seemed more concerned about what happened to the Third Child than anything else because of the experience. The girl questioned the agency's would-be moral ethics of using a ten-year-old to pilot a giant robot."

"But…they know he's actually fourteen, don't they?" Fuyutsuki asked.

"It turns out his entire student body spent more time trying to figure out how he stayed the way he is than anything else they could've asked him. They think he has something that's equivalent to the Fountain of Youth."

"That would explain further his unwanted popularity."

But Gendo wasn't convinced that the children his son let into the plug knew nothing. This was the second time this…phenomenon occurred after the defeat of an Angel, but this one may have been the direct cause of his wife returning to the world outside the Eva after more than a decade of entrapment. Or that his son knew nothing, either.

 _Someone knows something,_ he thought, looking down at his desk at the photos of the three children and his wife. _I will find the truth._

-x-

"…She actually said that?" Shinji asked Akira, who informed him that Ms. Horaki had questioned NERV's lack of guilt in recruiting him to operate a machine made to fight giant monsters in defense of the human race.

"Though, she addressed you as a ten-year-old instead of fourteen," she explained as they walked towards the elevator with Takuya. "Your classmates seemed very concerned about your well-being. Except, perhaps, for that boy with the camcorder."

"The otaku? He might actually get himself killed one day."

They stepped into an elevator and left the medical ward of NERV; even after they were denied the right to take him home, Akira wasn't going to take this, whether she was sitting down or not, and she and Takuya left with Shinji, regardless.

"So…did you have any dreams while you were asleep, Shinji?" Takuya asked him.

"I dreamt of thunder and lightning, electrical discharges and a lot of screaming," he responded, actually referring to the Quickening he got from the Angel. "Maybe I dreamt about being born."

"Yikes."

"I did say maybe. I don't know for sure."

"Still, yikes."

The elevator reached their stop and they got off.

"I don't know about you two, but I need something Italian," Shinji told them.

"Spaghetti?" Akira suggested.

"Lasagna?" Takuya added.

"Pizza," Shinji revealed.

"Pizza," they agreed with him.

-x-

Gendo was displeased that the Third Child and his guardians just up and left the base even after they were informed that the boy needed to stay for testing and questioning on his account of the events involving the Fourth Angel. His relatives just took his son with them without his consent…and the boy went with them willingly!

"He did say that he trusts them, Ikari," said Fuyutsuki to him in his office, looking out the windows at the base below. "There's no denying that he'd rather be with them than around here."

"We needed to ascertain whether or not he was aware of what occurred inside the plug after the battle," Gendo expressed. "Has he even seen her?"

"There's no indication that he ever went into her room. He might not know anything about her return at all, Ikari."

And this was something that might have been easier with Shinji if he did know about Yui. But there was always this fact that was a heavy hitter: His father was Gendo Ikari, who left his son with his wife's relations…and the aunt nearly killed him. If anything, this would make the boy question any decency about his mother, not just the heartlessness of his father.

"But suppose he did…just what do you suspect would come about as a result of this? The absence of both his parents for over ten years, suddenly both are present…and yet nothing seems to change for any of the three? Would anything change between the three of you?"

Gendo didn't answer that question. Not because he didn't want to think of the answer, but because of his own assumptions that nothing would change between them. Even if Yui was back, too much time had past between the three of them…and they had…other matters to attend to.

-x-

With soda and pizza at the table, Shinji, Akira and Takuya could speak about what happened earlier today with the Angel; as often as it was stressed that non-NERV members were to be kept ignorant of the situation involving the Angels, Shinji wasn't willing to follow all the rules and lie to the people he trusted the most.

"The Quickening I received today…actually brought my mother back," he said to them. "I never thought anything of the sort was even possible."

"Were you even thinking about her?" Takuya asked him.

"Hardly. I know she made me watch her experiment with the Eva over a decade ago, before I could even comprehend anything about any of it. Her whole bright future for all of humanity. That's nothing but pride, vanity in something that just isn't meant to be for anyone. And she didn't try to stop herself from getting absorbed into the Eva. It was no accident, no murder or an experiment gone wrong. It was a choice. Her choice…and it was the wrong choice at the wrong point in her life."

"And with your recent Quickenings, your recall has improved to the point where you have more awareness of what occurred in your past than any other person alive today in this century would," Akira spoke. "You felt that this was something that needed to be…remedied?"

"To boast about something of this sort, a bright future for humanity, something that others don't get or should want at a time like this, isn't something that one should be allowed to prosper at all. And if they do, then they need to know despair…even if it's not the type of despair one should get in the end." Shinji revealed his feelings toward this revelation.

"Pride has never been one of people's greater attributes," said Takuya, helping himself to a slice of pepperoni and sausage. "It's the one thing about people that can't ever be resolved properly."

"The first and most extreme of the Seven Deadly Sins," added Akira, eating a slice of pepperoni and pineapple. "I prefer dealing with the sins of greed and gluttony over vanity any day."

"I'll stick with envy and wrath, thank you very much," Shinji sighed, taking a slice of mushroom. "But anyway, I do hope that dear Mother…won't be able to do anything about the Eva, regardless of her personal beliefs and goals."

Akira and Takuya could see that, although their nephew's words were not uttered in tones of malice or contempt, Shinji was angry with both his parents for their choices. In their respective honesty, they couldn't blame him for feeling such resentment towards them; in many respects, he had been abandoned by the two people that were supposed to matter the most in his life, and all for reasons that were nothing more than selfish goals.

"Who really wants to live forever, serving as an eternal testament of mankind's existence?" Shinji questioned. "I mean, who would choose eternity over…just living until the day they will either enter paradise…or burn in the abyss?"

"Most people don't know what it's like to live a life without end," Akira sighed, taking a sip of her diet root beer. "Those that fear dying don't understand what it truly means to live…or what it means to be immortal."

"And what have you discovered in your years of life, my darling wife?" Takuya asked her.

"That even when you spend your eternity with the people you love most, knowing that they will eventually leave you, you're willing to risk losing them, regardless of the heartache that will follow you to the ends of time."

Shinji nodded his head in acceptance of her revelation of the truth to being immortal. He guessed that it came from having being over twenty-four-hundred years old and having been married eight times at various points of her personal history, with Takuya being her ninth husband; even with the heartache of losing her previous husbands and having to leave her families of those times to spare them the repercussions of living with an immortal, she still found it her to love anew and with someone that knew about her…and still chose her over anyone else.

-x-

Opening her eyes for the first time in many years, Yui Ikari's first thought after finding herself in a place that clearly wasn't the Eva was, _Where…am I?_

She rose up and set her feet down on the cold floor, feeling with nerves that hadn't felt anything in a long time. It appeared to be a hospital of some sort, and she could tell from the stale, sterile smells of the walls and sheets.

"Hello?" She called out as she staggered out of the room into the hallway. "Is anyone around?"

"Yes," she heard a female voice and turned around to find a female nurse. "I'm here."

-x-

The next day, as Shinji finished his breakfast and strapped his tanto to his left side under his uniform shirt before he stepped out of his apartment to go to school, he was hindered by the unexpected appearance of the three classmates from before.

"Hello," greeted Ms. Horaki to him as Mr. Suzuhara and Mr. Aida stood behind her.

"Hello," he responded, and then looked over the external railing at the rooftops across the street. "What brings you three here at this time of the day?"

"Other than making sure you were okay?" The jock expressed. "We needed to know…when you would tell us what is going on here?"

Seeing the same suits from before on the roof drinking cups of coffee, Shinji sighed and looked back at his classmates.

"Are you three free later this afternoon?" He asked them. "If you are, come with me to the wilderness outside of the city. I'll tell you enough that you'll think crazy is just another word in a labyrinth of language."

"Yeah, sure," the freckled boy responded. "Just one question, though. Is there…some sort of pact involved in any of this?"

"Not whatever you're thinking."

-x-

"…So, what now?" Yui asked Fuyutsuki, who visited her in the hospital and informed her of what the current situation was with NERV.

"I'm not entirely sure what happens now," he explained. "Everyone is still unclear of how your son has remained the same after four years since he was removed from your sister's custody. Some would say he found some sort of Fountain of Youth while others think he just doesn't get enough nutrition in his diet or stays up late. But he seems different from other children. A lot smarter than he lets on. Maybe much smarter than any child should seem."

"Like prodigy smart?"

"Maybe not that smart, but smart enough to tell truths from lies when he's told them. He's convinced that his father's withholding facts from him that have more to do with what NERV is up to, not what the Angels are up to. He even accused him of lying, called him a liar and would be waiting for a while until he was ready and willing to come clean."

"What's wrong with just telling him?"

"Your husband isn't very forthcoming with anything he says these days. Even hearing it from someone else on his behalf doesn't work with Shinji."

Yui then looked at the picture of her son that her former sensei brought for her. While he did seem older than he did from before the day of the contact experiment, he may as well have been unchanged since that tragedy. And there was something else about him that, for some unexplained reason, had Yui disturbed. More so than the fact that her sister had tried to kill him.

"What do think of him?" She asked.

"As a former victim of an attempted murder by a family member and a later kidnapping and attempted child molestation victim, I do feel sorry for what he went through in his past," he answered, "but as he is right now, I can't help but feel that for him, he perceives people as having two types of secrets: The ones they keep from others…and the ones that are kept from them…even when he seems to do the same."

"We all have secrets."

"But does he have secrets that would explain why he hasn't aged since the day that attempt on his life was made?"

That, of course, would have been remarkable if he did possess such a secret. If this were any other child, it would've made certain scientists interested in studying to discover the reason behind this.

"If he does, he doesn't want anyone to know what it is, for better or worse."

-x-

He didn't like the way she looked at him at any time of the entire school day. It wasn't just the fact that she looked like a cheap, carbon copy of his mother, but Shinji didn't like how she seemed to give him a look of utter contempt. Even during gym time for their class, he saw her looking at him on the track with the other male students when she wasn't swimming laps in the pool with the other girls.

"Man, she's really eyeing you, Ikari," said Toji to him as they sat on the benches with half the other students that were gossiping about the girls' bodies.

"There's nothing going on with either of us," Shinji told him in response, looking away from Rei Ayanami. "It's not even amusing to my lack of imagination."

"Have you ever even seen a girl's naughty bits?" Kensuke asked him on his left side of the bench. "I mean, you work at a place with hot women! That one with the purple hair and red jacket, quite the looker. Hot."

"I don't have time for the same, hormonal outrages that you two have time for. Plus, it's never the right time to think about pursuing a relationship of that sort. Just…school, home, grocery shopping, library, homework, house cleaning and the other things one takes for granted. If anything, Ms. Ayanami just despises me, not all that different from the way I despise people that lie to me."

Toji and Kensuke looked up at the girls at the pool again and noticed how Rei definitely seemed to facially express some sort of anger at Shinji.

Even this was not lost upon Hikari, who took notice of this because she was sitting against the fence with the albino girl.

"You don't like Shinji, do you, Rei?" She asked him.

"I do not like him," Rei responded, never taking her eyes off the little boy. "He is…unpleasant."

 _Unpleasant?_ Hikari wondered. _How can he be unpleasant? Does being little make him seem like some sort of freak?_

-x-

"…This is what keeps bothering me about Unit-01," went Ritsuko to Gendo on the bridge in Central Dogma, going over the report of the purple behemoth after it was repaired. "When the armor was replaced, the crew members reported that the core was different than before. Instead of being red, it was blue. When we tried to get a nervous system analysis, we picked up zero response from external stimuli."

"What does this mean?" Gendo asked her.

"I can't say for certain, but it would seem that there is zero activity within Unit-01 since your wife was recovered from it."

Of course, Gendo knew that his wife had something to do with Unit-01 being able to function, but he was certain that the Eva could still work, even after she was recovered from it. He wouldn't dare risk having her go back into the Eva a second time after what happened the first time she did so.

"How long before we can attempt synchronization testing with Unit-01?" He asked her.

"In at least two hours. Rei will be back around then."

"What of the Third Child?"

"He's not scheduled for any testing."

"Have him here, as well."

-x-

Shinji's cell phone rang, but he didn't pick it up. In fact, nobody was around to pick it up because nobody was at home to pick it up. In his hurry to get to school, the immortal ten-year-old had neglected to pick up his iPhone…and picked up his iPod Touch instead.

-x-

"Aw, crap," Shinji groaned as he led the trio of classmates out into the countryside outside of the city.

"What is it?" Hikari asked him.

"I took my iPod Touch instead of my iPhone," he explained, showing them the mistaken device.

"You use a lot of Apple's tech," said Kensuke to him.

"It's the Twenty-First Century. Technology is meant to be used to benefit mankind, not condemn it. Plus, this is a third-generation iPod Touch I got from my paternal aunt as a Christmas gift in Twenty-Eleven. It has sentimental value to me. I can't just discard it when a new version comes out into the world."

As they were far from the city and in the woods near an open field where Shinji saw Akira and Takuya sitting on a few large rocks, the quartet greeted them.

"Are these your classmates from the other day, Shinji?" Takuya asked him.

"Yeah, these are them," he explained, informing them that they saw what happened to him inside the plug. "Not one of my best moments."

Akira sighed and then threw Shinji his jian, which he caught, surprising Toji and Kensuke.

"You actually have a sword?!" Toji asked him.

"It'll be easier if you know firsthand what's up with me," he told them, and then took out his tanto, tossing it at Hikari, who caught it. "Are any of you familiar with any incidents of homicides over the years involving beheadings?"

"Not me, but I've seen the American film _Sleepy Hollow_ ," said Kensuke to him.

"That works, too. Unsheathe the blade, please."

Hikari did as requested as Shinji unsheathed his jian in front of them, followed by Akira, who revealed that she had her sword, a katana with a pearl-colored, carved tiger hilt, as well.

"I haven't aged a day since the day my maternal aunt attacked me four years ago," he revealed. "I am Shinji Ikari, born on the Sixth of June, Two-Thousand-One…and I am immortal."

Then he raised his sword and made a move towards Hikari, who reacted in defense and thrust the tanto at him in his chest, stabbing him and sending him falling backwards onto the grass.

"I hope you missed his original stab wound," went Akira, disturbing them with her calmness.

"I… I…" Hikari stuttered, unable to speak for her defense.

"It's okay," they all heard Shinji, who immediately got back up, removing his shirt to reveal the bare skin on his front. "She only got me in the right lung. She's clearly never held a blade in her life to defend life or take it in defense of her own."

The stab wound, which should've been bleeding due to being a deep cut, had sealed close and soon looked like a scar, which then disappeared from his body, leaving only the old stab wound from when his maternal aunt stabbed him.

"But…I dug the blade in," Hikari expressed.

Shinji then raised his left hand up in front of them.

"Stab my hand," he said.

"What?" Kensuke questioned, believing him to be crazy.

"Go ahead, stab it," he told them again.

Hikari gave the tanto to Toji, who gave in and stabbed Shinji's hand. The blade went right through the palm, but there was no blood; Shinji didn't even scream, even though he grimaced, as though he could still feel pain. When he pulled the blade back, the wound had sealed up and his hand looked good as new.

"But this can't be right," Kensuke uttered.

"The way the world works in this century isn't right," went Takuya to him, "but this is the way fate deals with a certain few."

As Shinji and Akira walked away towards the open space, the three teens sat with the elder gentleman on the rocks and watched the display of swordsmanship between the elder woman and the little boy.

"Incredible," went Toji, watching Shinji jump higher than anything a regular boy his physical age could. "But…how?"

"He simply can't die…because he was killed by his mother's sister four years ago," Takuya explained. "His First Death unlocked his immortality. He can't die…but this also means that he can't age, anymore. The reason he looks so much like a ten-year-old is…"

"Because he was a ten-year-old when he was killed for the first time," Hikari went, understanding the circumstances surrounding the boy's status. "And because he's still a ten-year-old. It's…it's unbelievable."

"Even more so is what he can do because of his immortality. Akira trained him in the way of the sword and martial arts so that he can defend himself from others that would come after him. While not entirely strong like adults, he's faster than most children and very nimble. He's also smarter. Maybe not like any of you, but he's not dumb or lacking in his skill set."

"Others that would come after him?" Kensuke questioned. "You mean, there are others out there? People that can't die, just like you three?"

"Actually, people just like my wife and nephew," Takuya clarified for the children. "I'm mortal, just like you three."

Clash! The jian and katana blocked one another as their owners stared into each other's eyes.

"Can they be trusted, Shinji?" Akira asked him.

"So long as they keep their mouths shut about us, I will tolerate them, Akira," he told her.

"Hold on a minute," said Hikari. "He said he's been this way for four years, right? But your wife is older. Is this…immortality something recent?"

"Only for Shinji," Takuya explained. "He's the first immortal of this century. It's only because of Akira's teachings that he has survived this long as an immortal. Unless beheaded by another immortal, he cannot die, and an immortal's lifetime depends on how well they can protect their head and how they live. It's not limited to just the Japanese. There are immortals at random, various points in time around the world. French, Scottish, Egyptian, American, from even before the time of the Bible and civilization."

Takuya explained to them everything Akira had told him when he found out she was immortal, about the Rules, the Game, how immortals could be both friends, enemies, lovers, assassins, businesspeople, scholars, anything, anywhere, anytime. It was enough to drive anyone crazy with this shadow world of people that lived for great periods of time after suffering a tragic death that brought them back.

"But…if they can live for a long time, don't people start to get suspicious of them?" Kensuke questioned him.

"Yeah, they do, but only if they don't understand…and if an immortal stays in one place for too long," he answered. "To improve their chances of avoiding danger from regular people, they have to start anew in new places where people don't know them."

"That's got to be tough on your wife, sir," said Toji.

"She's used to it."

"So, how long have you been with her, sir?" Hikari asked him.

"Nearly twenty years now."

"Twenty years…and…you don't have children of your own yet?"

"It's not like we can't. I mean, I can, but Akira can't. Neither can Shinji. Immortals can't have children. Though Akira was the minor exception before she became immortal."

"What do you mean?" Kensuke questioned.

He remembered her telling him like it was yesterday, about how she and her first husband were expecting their first child together…and how their home was attacked by a bandit that attacked her. She had been impaled in the top of her stomach, just below her sternum, but she was lucky that the bandit missed her baby when he caused her to go into labor a month early. The bandit was killed by her before her water broke…and all she could do was pray for her daughter's life as she felt her own fading away. He could imagine the way she had described the details, as if actually seeing her memory, like he was actually there as an observer. His wife, with the aid of her first love, managed to deliver the little girl before Akira felt like was breathing her final breath…and then she died…only to come back to life; somehow, it was the fatal impalement, not the premature delivery, that killed her and brought her back as an immortal, and she was the only woman that was known to have children before becoming immortal.

"What happened to her?" Toji asked. "Her daughter, I mean."

"They parted ways after she turned eighteen," he explained. "She loved her, but couldn't stay with her because she would've drawn in too much attention. But they stayed in touch over the years. The last time they ever saw each other, Sora looked old enough to be her mother. She had lived a good life, with dozens of kids. Akira couldn't have been happier for her. She kept watch over her grandchildren and descendants over the years, watching from the shadows. Kinda her way with coping with eternity by reminding herself that she still has family in the world."

"That's a big, family tree, then," Toji expressed, and then looked at the immortal pair as they clashed swords again. "But…Shinji's father… He doesn't know that he's immortal, does he?"

"No…and it's better if he doesn't know. He may be one of Akira's descendants, but he's a black sheep. We don't trust that he won't try to exploit Shinji in a way much crueler than what he has done since their bitter reunion."

-x-

"…He's not answering his phone," went Ritsuko to Gendo in his office. "Section Two reports that there's no activity at their apartment, so they're out somewhere."

"Make sure they find him," he ordered her.

-x-

As the afternoon sunlight began to dim, the two immortals and their four companions journeyed back into the city.

"Say, Shinji?" Hikari went, needing to know something about him as an immortal. "I can understand that this is something you simply do to survive, but…just…how many have you ever… you know?"

Toji and Kensuke knew she was asking him of how many immortals he had dealt with since becoming one himself.

"Excluding the Angels," he responded, carrying his sword on his back, "only six. I'm not proud of this in the least. I keep suggesting to them that there's no need to fight at all, but I might as well be speaking my pleads to steel walls. Not every immortal believes in not fighting. That's not how the Game works, though. You fight to the last, no matter what."

"I am sorry."

"It's okay, I've gotten used to it. I still have my choices in how I choose to play the Game. I fight only when I have to protect my head. I don't go out headhunting for the sake of power or to end the Game faster. It's just…the way it is for me."

"Not great to be immortal for you, is it?" Kensuke asked him.

"Not everyone wants to be immortal," he explained. "I don't fear death, but a life without end is a curse to me. One of the things I fear about the Game, though…is the possibility of having to face a friend or ally…and being unable to face the outcome of having taken their life or losing my own before I even get the chance to get sick or grow up and grow old and die of natural causes."

"You'd rather be mortal again…only to live a life where you can never know when your next day may be your last?" Toji questioned.

"Am I that obvious? Who would want to live forever? I don't. I may not even have long as another immortal would. Some can live for as long as five-thousand years…or twenty years…or all they get is just another week."

"I hope you get the chance to grow up and grow old, Shinji Ikari," said Hikari to him, sympathetic towards his unwanted eternity. "Your secret life is safe with me."

"Same here, man," went Toji; after learning that the school's only child-like student was an immortal and could only die when beheaded by another immortal, he had to admit that he respected boy. "And you pilot a giant robot. You practically saved my sister's life when that first monster attacked the city."

-x-

"…So…he's been living with some distant relatives of Gendo's?" Yui asked Fuyutsuki, after being permitted to wander around the base.

"Yeah," he explained, "though he doesn't like the idea of Shinji spending most of his time with them. They don't even seem to question his ageless state at all."

"Has anyone examined him for this more thoroughly?"

They stopped by the fountain garden and Fuyutsuki explained, "He's been examined for common ailments and possible handicap symptoms, but they all came back negative. He's…no different from any other child of his age, physical or chronological."

"But…if this is some sort of Fountain of Youth that he may have stumbled across in the last four years, it would be quite the accomplishment if it could be understood."

While Fuyutsuki agreed with her that it would have been an accomplishment, he still had to consider the fact that this wasn't just any little boy they were talking about. This was someone whose very life had been placed in danger because of a relation that just decided to attack him and left physical and emotional scarring that he didn't seem to recover fully from. And he carried a small dagger for his own protection, regardless of who he was surrounded by.

"Personally, even if this was within the realm of possibility, I feel he's entitled to keep his secrets until he chooses to confide in others," he told her.

-x-

The next day, after school, Shinji, having his phone this time, was walking to NERV when he saw Rei further up ahead at the NERV entrance. She was just standing there in front of him, staring at him. The boy just walked past her to the entrance.

"You are unpleasant," she told him.

"Says who?" He questioned her, but she didn't answer. "Why do you believe me to be unpleasant, Ms. Ayanami?"

Turning to face her, the albino girl had an unpleasant look on her.

"You are unpleasant…because you are not who you seem to be," she expressed. "You may look like a child…but you are far from one."

"Is this your belief…or is this how everyone feels?"

"You are a deception."

"Deception is all around us."

"Yet, you are one yourself."

"Well, not many people like albino people."

"Albino people?"

"People with a combination of hair, skin and eye pigmentation that isn't considered normal. You have blood-red eyes, chalk-white skin and pale, blue hair. People can accept hair colors that are unusual, like Ms. Katsuragi's purple hair or Ms. Akagi's dyed hair being faux-blond, but albinos are difficult to contend with because they leave some feelings of being disturbed because of their appearance, unless they're used to seeing different people. You speak of me being a deception? You seem to be deceiving yourself. We're all deceiving in our own ways."

He swiped his card in the slider after climbing onto the console and stepped inside the building, leaving the albino girl that left him uncomfortable by the fact that she looked like his mother, whom he was currently disgusted with in a similar capacity as he was with his father.

Rei's facial expression changed from one of disgust…to one of anger.

-x-

"…Is it just me, or has Rei been eyeing Shinji for over an hour?" Misato asked Ritsuko when they were running a synchronization test.

"I don't think she's blinked in the last twenty minutes," said Ritsuko to her, noticing how intensely Rei looked at the screens showing Shinji's face. "But this is also strange. Look at his current score."

They examined his synchronization ratio and were perplexed at the way he was able to do it.

"Is this accurate?" Misato asked her.

"Yeah," Ritsuko answered.

"Could this be a glitch?"

"No, everything is running flawlessly."

"But…how this possible?"

"That's…what we need to find out."

What Misato was informed was the core was damaged, but still within the working range, but this was the cover story she was given. What Ritsuko, Gendo and Fuyutsuki knew that not many others of the personnel knew was that, because of the return of Yui, the core was reduced to a blank slate, meaning that it shouldn't have functioned. They had tested Rei with it, and she couldn't sync with it at all. But now that they tried Shinji with it, they had to consider the possibility of the Eva's recent change after the Fourth Angel to involve him in some way because of the similar outcome since the Third Angel.

 _It's not possible to sync with a core that is no longer able to accommodate you,_ Ritsuko thought.

"He is unpleasant," they heard Rei say.

"What, Rei?" Misato asked her.

"The boy is…unpleasant," the albino repeated.

Misato looked back and forth between the two children and then back at Rei and said, "Well, he is not what any of us expected him to be when we saw him. I wouldn't call him unpleasant, but he is exceptional, considering the circumstances surrounding his past."

"Yeah, except for the subtle complaints we've been getting about using him as a pilot," Ritsuko added; ever since the day he was sent for by Gendo and the Fourth Angel attack, lower personnel staff members have expressed their concerns that exploiting a small child was not only disturbing, but extremely cruel of NERV to do, even when it had to be enforced that Shinji was fourteen, not ten or younger, despite his appearance.

-x-

"…How is this possible?" Yui asked Fuyutsuki, who informed her of the recent discovery. "Even I couldn't make the Eva function without a functioning core."

"We're not sure how," he explained, "though Dr. Akagi suggests that it has something to do with Shinji during the last battle."

"Has he…said anything?" Yui asked; she hadn't seen Shinji, heard from Shinji, not even spoken with Shinji ever since the Fourth Angel. "Anything at all?"

"He was called to his father's office after the test was over to talk about what happened. Shinji claimed to know nothing beyond letting his classmates into the plug. Anything that happened after that is lost upon him." He answered.

"What do you think?"

"I think he's telling the truth…but because of his appearance, I don't know for sure."

"He could be capable of lying."

"That's what Gendo thought when he questioned him…over and over again about what happened… He was badgering Shinji…and the boy became agitated being asked the same questions over and over again. I mean, really agitated. I saw him tighten his grip on his tanto's hilt when his father tried to approach him…and then unsheathed it when he tried to leave after Gendo asked for the third time what happened. He should've stopped asking him. I actually thought Shinji was going to stab him…or at least slit one of his wrist."

"Wait, he had a tanto with him? Why does he have a tanto? Why didn't anyone take it from him? Who gave him a tanto?"

"His paternal aunt gave him his tanto so he could protect himself against others that might attack him. He keeps it close at all times, claims having it is the same as having a condom; he'd rather have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. Honestly, I wouldn't take it from him. Even if I could, I wouldn't."

"Children shouldn't have knives, period."

"Except he's fourteen."

"But he doesn't look like a fourteen-year-old."

"Something he attributes to your sister attacking him."

-x-

Shinji didn't want to think about NERV, his parents and their separate-yet-equally-awful agendas, the Evangelion, the Angels or the Game. As he was walking home, he just wanted to relax in a long, hot bath. But then, he stopped and turned around, seeing the albino girl a good distance away from him with an unpleasant expression on her face. He was certain that she wasn't an immortal, but she certainly was getting on his case.

"What do you want now, Ayanami?" He asked her.

"I have orders to bring you back to NERV," she responded, but Shinji knew right then that she was lying, no matter how convincing she seemed.

"On whose authority?"

"Commander Ikari's."

"I'm afraid you two can go to Hell for all I care…because I've had a long day, and I need to get back to my aunt and uncle. It's a family game night."

As he turned to leave, the albino quickly approached him with her arms outstretched. He could hear her footsteps and quickly unsheathed his tanto and turned back, swinging the blade out at her arms.

Slice. Rei's right hand now sported a light cut in its palm as she backed away from the little boy.

"Back off, Ayanami!" He told her. "I won't hesitate to give you enough cuts to reduce you to passing out from blood loss."

Rei didn't expect him to have an actual weapon, or a willingness to use it…or even to react with such speed. As her cut began to spill fresh blood mildly, she decided to wait at another time when it suited her.

"Commander Ikari will not like this," she told him, closing her hand until she stopped bleeding from the cut, and walked away.

"Well, that's on him…and you," he told her, re-sheathing his blade. "Keep away from me."

He then ran down the street; he would inform Akira and Takuya, let them know that Rei Ayanami wasn't to be trusted. He may have also needed to inform his three classmates so that they knew to keep clear of her, as well.

-x-

"…So, not only does this girl look like an albino version of your mother," said Takuya to Shinji after he had informed him and Akira of his attempted attack by Rei Ayanami, "she actually tried to make an attempt on you?"

As they sat on the sofa in the living room, Akira had returned from the kitchen with a bottle of water for Shinji.

"The funniest thing is," Shinji told them, "she set me off like how immortals with lethal intention are supposed to, but she can't be immortal. I mean, she doesn't strike me as the sort that's even interested in other immortals."

Instead of drinking the water in the bottle, Shinji placed the cold bottle against the left side of his head; he was getting a headache just thinking about the albino girl.

"Next time Gendo has you underground till seven, I'll come get you myself," Akira told him, needing to make sure that he was protected from other threats or mortal men and women.

"Thanks," Shinji praised her; sometimes, he still felt like he was still ten years old and had to have a curfew to keep in check. "Not a good day today."

"Not a good city to live in," added Takuya.

"I tell ya, this once-great nation was full of potential before Second Impact," Akira expressed. "Back when it had all the seasons."

"Before the powers that be ravaged the lands," said Shinji.

"Yeah," went the adults.

-x-

"…What is the meaning of this?" Gendo asked Fuyutsuki, seeing him facing the immobile Unit-01 in one of the testing chambers; the consoles that provided an open channel to the Entry Plug were active…and Yui herself was inside the plug.

"A failed test," the Sub-Commander expressed, being simple.

It wasn't even three hours ago that Yui came to him and expressed the desire to try the contact experiment all over again. But the attempt had ended in failure; the moment the Entry Plug was inserted and the power was turned on, the Eva didn't recognize any adult within the plug. While the woman was certain that she could still sync with the Eva, Fuyutsuki had checked the graphs and had to inform her that everything was in the negative zones. The elder himself couldn't understand what was going on.

"Attempting a contact experiment with Unit-01's core without aid is impossible," Gendo told them, "and at a time like this is not acceptable."

"I'm sorry, Gendo, it was my idea," said Yui to him from within the plug. "I just wanted to see if the Eva could be synced with an adult mind properly."

But in reality, Yui had tried to re-establish herself as the soul of Unit-01, just as she had over a decade ago. Unfortunately, however, the Eva failed to recognize that an adult was inside the plug. She couldn't even feel the reactions that hinted at her body being broken down and her consciousness absorbed into the cybernetic organism. It was like trying to meld with a mirror, which had the same impossibility due to existing technology that didn't work.

"Somehow, Shinji was able to sync with the Eva while Rei couldn't," Fuyutsuki reminded Gendo. "Nothing added up."

"I questioned the boy about this, and he refused to answer," Gendo repeated.

"You mean, you interrogated him…with failed results. If he didn't know anything, then he doesn't know anything."

"People can lie, though."

"But aren't we doing the same thing?"

Gendo didn't answer him; he had just gotten Yui back, and he didn't want to lose her again.

-x-

Gasp! Shinji awoke in the dead of night, clutching his tanto as he got out of his futon.

It was that feeling, that same feeling he got when an immortal with lethal intention was near. Only this feeling was far greater than the previous ones he had experienced in the past.

"Shinji?" He heard Akira call out from the hallway; there was no doubt she had felt it, as well.

"Yeah?" He asked her as he slid open the door to his room.

Akira, holding the scabbard to her sheathed katana in case she needed to protect them from possible danger, looked down at him and wondered if he felt the feeling she had felt.

"You felt it, too, didn't you?" She asked him.

"Yeah," he answered. "Do you think there's an immortal nearby?"

"If so, they're very bold to come here at night when the rest of the world must sleep in the darkness to prepare to face the light of day."

"Unless they're head-hunters," Shinji realized, going back into his room and getting his jian. "They're the worst kind."

They passed through the kitchen and towards the front door.

Akira undid the locks and told Shinji, "On the count of three, we unsheathe."

"One," Shinji started, tightening his grip on his hilt.

"Two," Akira went after, ready to pull the blade out at a moment's notice.

"Three!" They said together, and Akira opened the door and they ran out onto the other hall outside the unit, their swords unsheathed and ready to slice through flesh and bone to protect themselves from danger.

The hall was empty, with only a cold breeze around.

"There's no one out here, Akira," Shinji told his immortal ancestress.

"Strange," she responded, not yet wanting to put down her sword. "We both felt the same feeling of an immortal nearby. Yet, there is no one here."

They looked out at the tall buildings of Tokyo-3, how they were nothing but pale mockeries of the magnificent buildings of the original Tokyo. The ancestress had shown her young descendant pictures of these amazing places that existed before Second Impact took them away from the world, how these places were pieces of existence that were remarkably unlike any other pieces of existence that would ever be made part of the well of time. How there were buildings that truly reached into the skies, towers of marble, gold, lumber and iron, a statue that was meant to embody liberty for all seeking freedom, a wall that spanned across a country that was once used to protect its people from old enemies. The boy even thought about how the remains of damaged cities or coastal remnants didn't recover well over the years…and how great it would have been if they could have.

"Shinji," Akira uttered.

"Yeah?" He responded.

"There's no awe and wonderment here. It's just pride and punishment."

"Yep."

To be continued…

A/N: Now the secondary characters of the primary character know about his immortality and the secret life he leads. What do you think will transpire next?"


	5. Heavenly Rage

Creation began on 12-12-16

Creation ended on 12-30-16

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Immortal Ikari: Heavenly Rage

"…So Yui can't sync with the Eva at all, no matter what she tries," Fuyutsuki tells Gendo in the latter's office. "She spent four hours in the plug… She may as well have been nonexistent within the Eva."

"Is it refusing her?" Gendo asked; he really didn't care about the failed attempts of his wife at getting the Eva to function for an adult, so long as she was safe from being taken from him a second time. "Could that be the reason?"

"It's possible, but we have no clue as of why yet."

 _So long as she is kept safe from the Eva,_ Gendo thought, never giving the Eva a second thought when it concerned his wife.

"There is another matter that needs to be discussed," Fuyutsuki informed him. "Yesterday evening, according to your son and his aunt that came to see me earlier this afternoon, Rei Ayanami attempted to assault the boy without reason."

"Has she explained why?"

"She hasn't shown up today. Section Two reported that she returned to her apartment…and hasn't left it since last night."

"Can we confirm that they're telling the truth?"

"I can't imagine why a ten-year-old would lie about being assaulted."

"Except the Third Child isn't ten."

-x-

"…You three didn't really have to come with me to see the continued construction of the temple, Ms. Horaki," said Shinji to Hikari as she, Toji and Kensuke accompanied the young immortal up the stone steps to the location of the city's eastern temple.

"It's okay, really," Hikari told him. "How often does one get the opportunity to see a temple being built around the city to embrace spiritual growth?"

"There's more to it than spiritual growth and development of religious freedom. The city's devoid of any sacred ground, making it a giant battlefield with no safety net for those that may come here. There needs to be a refuge, even if it's a small one."

"Meaning the temples aren't just for people to come and express their beliefs in the gods," went Toji, who understood what Shinji was saying, "they're to protect you and your relatives from the crazies your uncle mentioned."

"Since you three are my confidants and Takuya explained the Game and its logics and what have you, you know that one is safe from harm only on holy ground. Not even the most vile of us will violate that rule, even to win the Game. It's a tradition."

"But you believe in gods, right?" Kensuke asked him. "I mean, you have religious beliefs, just like other people do, right?"

Shinji stopped on the steps and looked at the three.

"I believe in the morality of deities," he revealed to them. "I believe in how a man that generations, old and new, accept for surrendering his right to a future to preserve the future of others, to have given up his life for whatever sins they may have committed, or how the soul is made up of four, distinct aspects that bind it. But what I want to believe in, more than anything else right now, is a future to this life I live…with an ending that I can actually live with."

The three teens looked at each other and then back at Shinji, agreeing with him.

"Try not to lose your head over this," said Toji to him as they resumed walking up the steps toward the half-built temple.

-x-

"…I didn't expect Rei to be so forthcoming about the accusation," said Fuyutsuki to Gendo and Ritsuko on the command bridge in Central Dogma as they watched the repair work on Unit-00 progress.

"But her reason was unlike any other excuse she could've given," went Ritsuko. "She just says that the Third Child is unpleasant. Not weird, not creepy, just unpleasant."

But Gendo was put off by the revelation and reason. As much as he knew Rei in every personal aspect, he had never known her to use the word 'unpleasant' in any sentence or paragraph. He didn't even know she knew that word. His choice of words toward the Third Child would have been more like 'unusual', 'different' or 'disappointment'.

"I guess this adds to the reason for keeping a tanto with him," Fuyutsuki expressed, which reminded the other two that Rei was cut in her hand by Shinji for trying to grab him.

"We should really take that thing from him," Ritsuko suggested; at least they'd be safe from him if they did so.

"But then, he wouldn't feel safe from any of us."

"Why would he need to feel safe from us?" Gendo questioned.

"He has been harmed by adults," Fuyutsuki stated, reminding them that, despite the Third Child's predisposition in the agency, he was still one that could view adults with suspicion and that had no problems with being cruel towards children like the ones that had been to him. "It wouldn't be odd if he didn't want to be more than two feet from his tanto if he didn't feel safe."

"What's to stop him from trying to hurt the First Child again if she were to try a repeat of what got her hand cut?" Ritsuko questioned. "Or any of the other personnel if he feels threatened? Or worse, what's to stop him from choosing to leave if he feels he needs to get away from NERV?"

This, of course, had Gendo and Fuyutsuki unable to answer. While the former still had much of his confidence that his son would stick around so long as the Angels continued to attack, the elderly latter felt that any number of factors, both anticipated or unanticipated, would drive the boy to leave them hanging, whether it was because his father refused to tell him the truth about what they were doing…or because he would become fed up with the fighting. And then, there was SEELE, who would still desire an audience with the child if NERV couldn't figure out what kept him in the body of a small child when he should've been bigger, something Gendo was going to great lengths to keep the old men from achieving.

"For the time being, have the First Child keep away from the Third Child," Gendo told them. "If complaints about his tanto persists, we'll insist that it be taken from him."

-x-

Even though it was only half-finished, Shinji felt a degree of safety within the incomplete structure that was to serve as holy ground for the immortals as he laid on the polished, wooden flooring, staring up as the sky.

"Man, Shinji, you have a different perception to after school recreation," said Toji, looking up at the sky with him and the others.

"I could lay here for three hours and worry about nothing," Shinji told them.

"It's actually quite peaceful," Hikari responded, agreeing with the immortal.

But Kensuke had to make sure that what they heard earlier during recess at school was accurate again, even though the person the information it pertained to was absent.

"Rei Ayanami seemed unsociable, but nobody that saw her believed her to be capable of violence," he uttered.

"People have a hidden aspect of their existence, and that's their ability to be unpredictable," Shinji enforced. "Unpredictability…and causality that comes with the power of free will and choice. One can't reach for the nearest book on the shelf without influencing the course of the farthest ship."

"That sounds an awful lot like something out of that _Witchblade_ comic series," said Toji.

"What is it with boys and comics?" Hikari asked them.

"Boys enjoy comics and superheroes," Shinji gave an opinion for her question. "Girls enjoy dolls and cooking. We're separated by preference that spans back a number of generations. Women were always expected to be homemakers while men brought home the rewards of the day, but now people live based on what is enjoyed most. Men can enjoy dolls just as much as women do, women can serve in the military and achieve a good position in rank, or even create comic books that appeal to people."

"What of you, Shinji?" Toji asked him. "Swords? Horses? Religion?"

"Shojo manga," he said, explaining his preferences. "Tigers and dragons, the Taoist symbol, holidays that embrace the rights to something historical, the right to change your mind when you face a choice others want you to make that you're uncomfortable with making, American films like _Lethal Weapon_ , monster films like the _Godzilla_ franchise… Honesty…feeling tall."

Hikari sighed and expressed, "Cooking, order and stability. Ever since my mother died, I've had to look after my sisters and father."

"Personal loss can affect preferences," he explained. "My sympathy for your loss."

"Thank you."

"Hey," went Kensuke to them, sitting up, "what are we doing here, anyway?"

Shinji looked at him and responded, "I can't, for the heart of me, recall the reason we're here."

"Eh-heh-heh!" Hikari chuckled.

"Ha-ha-ha!" Toji added.

-x-

"Are you sure you're okay, Akira?" Takuya asked his immortal wife, serving her tea at the table. "You've been quiet ever since last night."

Akira, accepting the cup of jasmine tea from her husband, responded, "Shinji and I felt a strange feeling that should've been the presence of another immortal with lethal intentions nearby last night, but when we stepped outside, we didn't see anyone. That doesn't make any sense at all. When the feeling makes itself known, the opposing immortal is at a good distance away from you. None of the immortals I know have ever felt the presence of others any further than at least a mile or two away from where they were. I tried calling one of them who should still be living with their current identity, but no response yet. I'm hoping one of them will know something."

As he sat beside her on the left, Takuya suggested, "Do you think it's possible that…what you've been living through the centuries for…has finally arrived?"

"The Gathering? It can't be that. You're supposed to feel an irresistible pull to a faraway place…and I've felt no such pull at all. We'll ask Shinji if he's felt like he has to go anyplace when he gets back."

Takuya places his left hand over her right hand.

"Whatever this is, you and Shinji have to be careful," he told her.

"If it is the time of the Gathering, I'd rather make sure I put my affairs in order before I go facing others for the Prize," she told him; for as long as she has been alive, living many shadow lives among the people for over two-and-a-half-thousand years, she always prepared for the eventuality and inevitability of the Gathering, making sure that, no matter what became of her, her family of that life would have all that they needed, whether she survived or not in the Game.

Unfortunately, there was the new wrinkle in this life that was Shinji. While they put up the false claim that the boy was their nephew, he was actually closer than that, even if it was a distant relation. He was actually their distant grandson; Akira had been an only child since the early deaths of her little brother and sister before she even turned sixteen. Her fears regarding Shinji were of facing him for the rights to the Prize if they were the last two immortals left.

"Hey. If it came down to just Shinji and I…do you think I could face him?" She asked Takuya.

"Kami, I couldn't answer to that," he responded; in truth, he never wanted to think of the possibility of either his wife or grandson facing each other in a fight to the death for a prize that could be anything. "To be honest, I don't ever want to answer that. If this is a sign of the Gathering, my only hope is that you both are able to walk away from this."

Akira smiled and held him.

"If there's a way to walk away from the Game for good, I hope it makes itself known soon," she told him.

-x-

"Are you sure you're going to be okay, walking home by yourself?" Hikari asked Shinji as they walking down the street.

"Yeah," he answered her. "It's just a block away from here, so I'm good. What of you three?"

"Men have to walk ladies home," said Toji to him, "otherwise, it's considered unmanly."

"You mean, you have to be a gentleman," Shinji clarified for them.

"Yeah, right."

The immortal looked at him and Hikari and sighed.

"If it makes it seem any weirder, you two could hold hands," he suggested to them.

"Oh, come on!" Toji gasped, but all Hikari did was turn her head away to hide her blush.

"It could help to keep other men away from Ms. Horaki if they were led to assume she was in a relationship with one of you. There are men out there that believe in simply taking whatever they want, whoever they want, however they want, whenever they want."

"How are you able to know these things?" Hikari asked him.

"Studying the news and the benefits of the Quickenings I receive."

"I gotta know more about these Quickenings, man," said Kensuke, and then they went their separate ways. "Good night!"

"Good night!" Toji and Hikari said, walking away, following Shinji's advice and held hands.

"Good night," Shinji told them as he walked down the block to his building.

-x-

"…Going through the surveillance footage?" Fuyutsuki asked Yui, who sat in front of a console in a video room, looking at several monitors that showed Shinji in either the halls, in the Entry Plug, stepping into the restroom or some other part of the base.

"I've gone over the footage several times," she explained, "and not once has he come to see me while I was in the hospital."

"I'm sure he has his reasons."

"Was he told not to?"

"No, nobody told him not to."

"He must not know who I am, then."

"Maybe you should tell him, then. I'm sure he'd be happy to see you."

-x-

"…No, I've felt no need to go to some faraway place," Shinji informed Akira and Takuya when they sat down for dinner and was asked about the feeling he and Akira had earlier last night. "Do you two really think the Gathering's going to happen soon?"

"No," went Takuya, "but it's a possibility, Shinji. Maybe what you and Akira felt last night was just a coincidence, something that rarely happens to immortals."

Shinji then rubbed his chin, a different idea coming to mind.

"Shinji?" Akira asked him.

"Maybe it is a coincidence," he started, "but what if… What if the reason we don't feel the need to go anyplace…is because we're already where we're supposed to be?"

The married couple looked at each other and then at their nephew/grandson, at a loss for words.

"Of all the places it could take place in the world," Akira sighed, "must it really occur within the worst city in the history of artificiality in the nation?"

"Tokyo-3," Takuya expressed. "Still a week or two away from having four temples for people to commune with their deities. In every sense, a city without gods. A godless city."

"We're still just assuming," Shinji reminded. "Maybe we should get in touch with our fellow immortals around the world."

Ring-ring! Akira's iPhone rang, and she picked up.

"Akira Rokubungi speaking?" She spoke, and her eyes widened. "And I thought I wasn't going to hear from any more of you MacLeods, Quentin. It must be morning where you're calling from… What? You're on a flight to Japan? What are you coming here for? Then you've felt it, as well? Okay, then. See you when we see you. We're in Tokyo-3 for the time being. If you're coming here, then there's a good chance that others left around the world will be coming, too. Good-bye."

She hung up and sighed, throwing her head back.

"Well, Shinji, it may no longer be a coincidence," she told them. "If what we felt was a sign of the Gathering set to happen, then that means it's going to happen here, of all the places it could've happened."

Shinji threw his head onto the table.

"Permission to curse," he expressed to his guardians.

"Permission granted," Takuya responded.

"Damn this city," he cursed.

"Yep," Akira agreed. "We gotta put a rush on the construction of those four temples. This artificial city needs holy ground bad."

"How many immortals should we expect?" Takuya questioned.

"Every immortal left alive, which could be any number of them. It could be twenty or thirty, nine, maybe even seven of them on their way here. However few there are, the end result will be the same that we've all heard and understand to the bitter end of the day."

Shinji turned to face her and sighed; even if they had no choice but to participate in the Gathering and fight their immortal friends and allies for the Prize, he really couldn't find it within himself to commit the unlikely act imaginable to him, even if they were only distant relatives. He simply couldn't find it within himself to face her and take her life, even if it could restore him to mortality again. His admiration towards her knew no boundaries; she saved him that day from an uncertain future of being with strangers that didn't know what to do with him, how to keep him safe from immortals that didn't think twice about murdering an immortal child. If he had to honor someone greater than his parents, he would choose her and Takuya in a heartbeat.

"How long until Quentin arrives?" He asked her.

"He should reach Yokohama in eight hours and then catch a commuter flight to here an hour-and-a-half later," she answered. "He wants to get here as fast as possible to ensure no enemy immortals win the Prize."

"Speaking of which, I've read the morning paper today," went Takuya. "The police still have no idea who the culprit behind the murder of that woman they say worked at NERV is. They thought the culprit was just another copycat, as they believe another decapitation occurred on the same night the woman was beheaded in Los Angeles."

"Los Angeles?" Akira and Shinji spoke up; the adults knew that Shinji had only killed Miyuki Aoi to defend himself while they were gathering their things to come here, but knew it was impossible for him to simply go to the States and kill another person that might've been an immortal. "Do they have the identity of the victim?"

"No, the man they found on the rooftop of a parking garage had no I.D. They just found his head hanging from a streetlight."

Leaving a severed head hanging from a streetlight wasn't Shinji's M.O., nor was it Akira's. Whoever did this act, they wanted to humiliate their victims further in death.

-x-

"…A head that has no name," a man's voice said on the news app on a woman's iPad in a private cabin on a large ship that was heading to Japan.

"Only I know his name," the woman uttered, sitting in front of the Apple device. "I will be the last one standing."

-x-

"…Hey, Shinji," Hikari greeted the tiny immortal as he stepped into the classroom, looking restless. "Are you alright?"

The room was sparse, but with at least eight other students, the Class Representative sat as close to Shinji as possible by the windows where nobody else sat.

"I just found out something last night that might complicate things in the next few days," he stated simply; the less the regular people knew, the safer they were from the shadow world of people of eternity. "This city's going to become a hot spot."

"But…isn't the city already a hot spot because of the Angels?" She questioned.

"Yeah, but that's NERV's problem. The problem I'm referring to is…very different."

Moments later, Toji and Kensuke entered the room and saw the two by the windows and joined them in the conversation.

"Top-secret agencies or wanderlust?" Kensuke asked, which was code speech for NERV and the Angels or the world of the immortals, respectively.

"Wanderlust," Shinji told him. "Are you three free during lunch?"

"Nobody goes to the rooftop around here, except for Kensuke and I," Toji offered.

"That seems private enough. I'll explain it to you all then."

The young immortal then looked over at the empty desk where Rei sat, wondering if she was going to be around today.

"Rei wouldn't be present today," Hikari told him.

"Still wouldn't go a day without my tanto," he responded.

As the rest of the class came in and school began, it was several hours before lunchtime came and the four classmates were on the roof in solitude. The Class Representative had brought too much food with her and Shinji and Toji offered to help her go through it.

"Being timeless doesn't change anything to the human body," Shinji explained. "We still need to eat, drink, sleep…"

"Breathe?" Toji asked, joking.

"Only when there's air."

"So, what is the situation you're going to be in soon?" Hikari asked him.

"You remember what Takuya explained to you about what would befall the immortals left alive in the world? The Gathering? It may have started the night before last night. Akira and I got a strange feeling that an enemy immortal was close by, but there was nobody near our building. Then, last night, Akira got a call from one of the immortals she knew and found out that several immortals were on their way here. Tokyo-3, of all places. And when they get here, it's anyone's guess as to who will be the last one standing."

"Just how important is this…Prize?" Toji questioned.

"No one really knows what it is, but only that it will be afforded to whoever the one left alive is at the end. We're just left to wonder what it could be. It could be anything. Untold riches, absolute knowledge, the power to rule the world, know what the future brings, anything."

"What about you? What do you think it could be?" Kensuke asked him.

"If it were me? To live like people once again. To grow up, grow old and experience the fullness of life. In the words of those that know what a life like mine brings… Who would want to live forever, knowing that a life without end is all that there is for you?"

These three were then reminded that while Shinji was immortal, he was still very young at only fourteen years. He might've put on a front to show that nothing much bothered him, but he still had the fear of what immortality brought. And while there were those that would've done anything to live forever for fear of death, this young man wasn't afraid of dying…but he didn't want to die as a ten-year-old when there was a chance, only a chance, that he could, potentially, grow up and grow old again.

"Is there anything we can do to help you?" Toji asked him.

Shinji had gotten up and stood against the fence and responded, "No. Mortals can't interfere in immortal affairs, such as battles. I thank you enough for keeping the truth from others."

"But…isn't there a way for those to get out of the Game?" Hikari suggested. "I mean, is holy ground the only way to stay safe from your adversaries? You couldn't just…forfeit your immortality to someone else without losing your head?"

Shinji turned back to face them and answered, "If there was a way to do that, we, Akira or myself, would've figured that out a long time ago."

"This hasn't been used anywhere except in certain films, Shinji," Kensuke suggested, "but certain bad guys know secrets that most good guys have no awareness of…and rather than exposing those truths that could end a conflict or war sooner, they keep it to themselves and cause the problems to progress."

"You truly think that an enemy immortal would know of such a means to take one's Quickening and leave them alive, but refrains from doing so because they feel it's easier to just kill them?"

As he was about to raise his left hand, Shinji's limb started glowing pink like fire. And then his right hand did the same. He calmed down and the glowing ceased; this was something he had recently discovered this morning on his way to class.

"I'm sorry. If there is truth to this, I hope it makes itself known soon. There are people I can live without harming."

-x-

Akira found the parks of Tokyo-3 to be, although tranquil in their appearance, not so much pleasant to be for her. Even if one of them was near Lake Ashi, she just didn't feel the serenity that one, even an immortal, should've felt.

"An artificial city with no soul," she sighed, placing her hands on a railing overlooking the lake. "They can keep building these small disgraces to the original masterpiece all they want, they're never recapture the soul that was lost."

Because Shinji was in school and her husband was working on the finishing touches of Shinji's bike, Akira had the whole day to herself, and she spent only two hours walking the streets to personally evaluate the parks. She would go grocery shopping in another half-hour.

Suddenly, got an awful feeling from someone behind her by at least a few feet. She turned to face them…and found Gendo of all people in her presence.

"What do you want?" She asked him.

"I'm just here to talk about the Third Child," he answered.

"If you can't even address your son by his name after all this time, then we have nothing to talk about. Shinji doesn't like to talk about you. Takuya doesn't like to talk about you. Even I don't like to talk about you."

"You are aware that his mother is in the medical ward at NERV HQ."

"What has that to do with anything?"

"She wants to see him."

"Then why talk to me? Why can't you just talk to Shinji and tell him his mother wants to see him? He has his phone. So long as one leaves a voicemail message, he'll get back to you in due time once he gets the message. Unless, of course, it's one of those bogus advertisement agencies or an unregistered number…or you didn't think to speak with him at all."

"There is another matter I must discuss with you."

"Now, don't try to change the subject."

"I'm changing the subject. That tanto the boy carries around. Did you give it to him?"

Akira then turned away from him to look at the lake.

"Why the sudden interest in Shinji's personal life?" She asked him.

"This is a matter of personnel safety because he attacked one of the pilots with a concealed weapon he shouldn't have had."

"First of all, your pilot, Ms. Ayanami, tried to make a move on him, resulting in him using it to defend himself. Second, Takuya and I are against Shinji being in some underground facility for undetermined lengths of time, no matter what the reason is. And lastly, he needs to be able to protect himself from anyone that makes an attempt on his life. He's been either harmed by an assault or being snatched up off the street by people that have sick minds over children. Yes, I gave him the tanto. Nobody uses Mace, anymore, unless it's in Taser form. If I had to all over again, I'd still give him the tanto out of concern for his safety, a concern that you seem to either lack or disregard entirely."

"You gave a ten-year-old boy a weapon."

"Excuse me?"

"What?"

"You just called Shinji a ten-year-old. He's fourteen, yes, but still a child that needed his parents to guide and love him until he no longer needed them to be involved in every aspect of his life. I emphasize 'needed' because now he's at the age where his parents aren't a matter that he needs to be concerned with if the very word that is 'family' means very little to those that should've done more for him than just leave him with people that he knew nothing about."

"Yet he trusts you and your husband enough to be around you."

"I keep no secrets from Shinji. I don't treat him with contempt or ignore him, I don't lie to him or say that he's insignificant, that he doesn't mean anything when he means everything. You gave your sister-in-law money to watch him, something I've done without any sort of monetary compensation desired. Look at yourself, Gendo. You can't even tell your son the truth about what's really going on here. No, not 'can't'. You…you simply won't tell him the truth, not even to reconcile with him. As much as I should hate you for what your actions did to Shinji when he was little, you deserve much more than hatred. I pity you, Gendo…and anyone that can stand to be in the same room with you."

Akira then walked away from the lake and him, leaving him fuming over what was said…and what was never said.

-x-

Shinji returned to NERV for synchronization testing, but most of the adults kept their distance from him; he suspected that the incident with Rei and having her hand cut by him with a tanto had become known to them and they were trying to keep from getting cut by him. He didn't have time to concern himself with their concerns about whether or not he was going to use the tanto on any of them. His priorities were as followed: Complete the synchronization test, wash up, return to the apartment and ask Akira if she had ever encountered any immortals that knew of a way to forfeit one's immortality without the need to forfeit their head and life. Those were what he needed to deal with until further notice.

Beep! His phone went off, receiving a text from someone.

He took it out and read it. It was from Akira, informing him that his father told her that his mother would want to see him. This, however, didn't impress Shinji at all, and he texted back if having to see her was mandatory or avoidable. He didn't want to get his hopes up at a happy family reunion when he clearly perceived the Ikaris as being a broken family, in every sense of the very word itself. Broken relationships, broken trust, broken hopes and dreams that would never come true, even if one wanted them to.

He raised his left hand to his chest, just above his healed wound that was proof of his First Death, feeling the phantom sensation his maternal aunt caused with her attempt on his life.

 _I can't go through that again,_ he thought as he sat in the Entry Plug. _I can't be shackled by the empty promises of reconciliation when the two people that were responsible for my mortal existence just walked away. You don't just walk away and then come back after years of absence like nothing ever happened. And worst is they're scientists, which makes any relationship with them no better than the understanding of chemistry. They may have set my life in motion, but their roles in it have gone no further than what I've discovered…and may go no further without the admittance of truth and forgiveness._

Meanwhile, outside the plug in the chamber where his scores were being monitored, Ritsuko and Misato were looking at the graphs.

"This is insane," went Misato to the faux-blond woman. "How can he be doing this? I mean… This isn't possible."

"I know," Ritsuko agreed with her, "but he's doing it. He's well over five-hundred percent now. That's one-hundred percent higher than the last recorded synchronization test done almost ten years ago. What is this kid?"

"Something else entirely. He's broken into new territory that was once believed to be dangerous, yet he has no clue."

When the test was done, it was almost seven-thirty in the evening; he had been kept there longer than the last time.

"What is it with people having no respect for one's time?" He questioned in the shower stall as the hot water poured over him, washing the disgusting LCL off his flesh. "I respect time, I respect that the world doesn't stop and start at your leisure. What is wrong with people down here?"

When he was sufficiently cleaned of the blood-smelling substance, he redressed and walked towards the elevator with his phone out to contact Akira and Takuya. But his attempt to call them was delayed by the presence of the very woman he had no interest in seeing at all.

"Hello, Shinji," his mother greeted him in the elevator, but he just pressed the button for his floor destination and waited for the thing to get moving. "How are you doing?"

"I have home ec. for homework," he told her, really not wanting to converse with her at all. "Akira and Takuya will be able to tell me much of what I need to know."

"You interested in home ec.?"

He sighed and expressed, "Recology. That's how one's going to save the world."

With her specialty being engineering, Yui had very little understanding in what her son was speaking of.

"I heard there was a salvaging project that was going to collect the metallic waste that people left during Second Impact," he uttered. "All those cars, pieces of scrap metal, planes and what have you…just rusting under the sea with all that toxic waste we dumped because there wasn't anyone smart enough to do something right about it."

"I'm sorry, but…do you even…remember me?" Yui had to ask him.

He didn't turn to face her, but responded, "With everything that has happened…and with everything that is going to and wants to happen…you're not somebody one simply forgets after one tragedy after another…even when there's no picture kept."

"You don't seem happy."

"That's 'cause I'm not happy. I'm not happy because of what has happened in the last few years, even before I was struck in the back of my head and stabbed in the chest. I'm not happy that I'm related to a woman that got off easy after trying to kill me. I'm not happy that a guy I haven't even so much as spend one day doing something as trivial as just playing video games at an arcade would lie to me about everything he says instead of just owning up to the truth. I can't even be happy about what would bring most kids joy in their youth…because I don't feel that same joy for certain people. Not when they lie, not when they have different expectations or want you to do things that are best left forgotten and undone."

The elevator then stopped and Shinji got off, leaving Yui to ponder her son's…contempt.

-x-

"…I knew you had a lot of anger held in check, but I didn't expect you to not lash out, Shinji," Akira told him as she drove them back to their building. "I certainly hope you never get pissed off at me or Takuya like that."

"I'll be honest, you and Takuya have never done anything to get me riled up the way I get riled up at my parents," he told her, looking out at the building lights. "Except for when you threw me into the water to show me my immortality."

"It was how I learned of my own immortality, Shinji."

"I just remembered that I needed to ask you an important question about the Game that was brought up by my friends at school. Is it possible to simply give up one's immortality without beheading someone?"

"Not that I know of, Shinji. I've heard of rumors about a different way to obtain one's Quickening, but none of the immortals I met over the ages that were either older or younger than I was at the time had ever encountered immortals that could obtain them without beheading their enemies. If I knew of such a way, I would've been able to spare myself and many others the severity of eternity."

"I can't blame you for trying to find an alternative way."

"But one part of the rumors I heard was that only seven immortals knew of such a way. They were likely trying to outlive every other immortal, trying to make it to the Gathering so that one of them could win the Prize. Nothing about whether they were good or bad."

"Have you ever experienced a Quickening that was…overwhelming, Akira?"

"Yeah, Shinji. Just once. It was a Dark Quickening, and those do exist. I fought an immortal that was among the worst of her time. She was a murderess of the coldest sort; everyone was just another potential victim for her. It didn't even matter who they were. It was three-hundred-fifty-nine years ago. I stopped her from killing a mother and her two children…but I nearly became overwhelmed by her power and knowledge. It was like…her evil intentions refused to follow her to the grave."

When they reached their building, Akira finished her story to Shinji.

"I was in a bad place for days," she explained the results of her Dark Quickening. "I wanted to hurt people, steal from them, even kill them without needing a reason, but each time I came close to doing so, I felt like I was just going to get sick. I pleaded for help from anyone that knew what to do about my situation, to stop me. A fellow immortal I knew during that time explained what the Dark Quickening had done to me and informed me of only two ways to overcome the darkness of the immortal I had defeated; I either had to take the Quickening of an immortal that wasn't cruel…or cleanse my soul by in a sacred spring. I wasn't going to claim another's head unless they came after me, so I searched for a sacred spring…and cleansed my soul of the evil immortal's darkness. I never felt so much freedom from the darkness that had enveloped my life. After that, I knew I had to be more careful about the immortals that came after me or my loved ones. One Dark Quickening was enough to last me an eternity, I didn't need to go through with any more of them. Have you experienced any that I should know about?"

"No, of course not. The reason I ask was because I didn't know if there was a limit to how many Quickenings one can amass over their eternity."

"To be honest, there's no limit to the number of Quickenings one can receive. Depending on how one goes about their immortal life, one can have amassed thousands of Quickenings, hundreds of Quickenings, maybe even just twenty Quickenings. Sometimes, even just a few Quickenings can be enough if the enemy immortals you defeat have amassed multiple Quickenings themselves."

Stepping into the elevator, the two went up to their floor.

"Akira?" Shinji went.

"Yes, Shinji?" She responded.

"Thank you for being honest with me."

"I would never lie to you, Shinji."

-x-

"…What do you mean, he resents you two?" Fuyutsuki asked Yui, standing in front of Unit-01 in the Eva cages.

"He didn't say much, but he never once looked at me while we were in the elevator," she explained to him. "It was like he couldn't stand to be anywhere near me. And his tone… There was disappointment in his voice, anger and resentment. He's…not the same boy I left all that time ago. He's…so different."

Fuyutsuki sighed and asked her, "What are you and your husband going to do about him should he decide to walk away? He's waiting for his father to come clean with the truth about what's really going on here, but I'm convinced that he'll leave if he's lied to again."

"Then…he should know the truth, then," she expressed.

"He was told that the Angels would wipe away the human race unless he fought them off, but he beat his father with common sense on how the Third Angel acted and how the Fourth Angel acted afterward. He may not have the intellectual awareness of a scientist, but he may know more than what he lets on just from observing certain people or having a conversation with them. It's like he's waiting for a reason to judge anyone he's around."

"Then…he probably judged his parents."

-x-

"…Everything seems to be in order for your car lease, uh…Diana Akuma," a Japanese man in his forties said to a woman that seemed very…off-putting, despite her attractiveness.

She stood about six feet, had long, burgundy hair tied into a ponytail, was clearly the product of some sort of interracial relationship with Asian ties, but her eyes were the coldest green you had ever seen. Her current attire consisted of a large, red coat and a purple dress. Adorning her neck was the strangest choker the man had ever laid eyes upon; it seemed Gothic, but it was made entirely of black metal, with its skull motif almost unnoticeable unless you were looking directly at it. If anything, this was a lady everyone needed to steer clear of if they valued their lives because she looked as though she could take them.

"Have a great time in Japan," he told her.

"Thank you," she responded, but while her voice seemed appreciative, it was like it masked a hidden disgust, and then she walked away to her vehicle for the duration of her stay in Japan.

Diana Akuma had selected an energy-efficient car, and the Japanese gave her a Toyota Prius. So long as it served her in getting to where she needed to go without much trouble, she wouldn't complain much to the car service people. At least not until after she had won the Game and became the last one standing. Then, everyone would be at her feet, serving her every whim if they valued their lives.

 _This century is as pathetic as the previous century,_ she thought as she placed her roll along suitcase into the back of the car. _This world can't be cleansed soon enough from the light and the darkness that poisons them. I will be above all, all-seeing and knowing. And everyone will know my name._

Buckling in her seat belt, she started the engine and drove off into the night.

-x-

The very next day was emotionally calming, which is what Shinji and Akira needed to forget about the troubles of the previous day. Given that it was a weekend now, both felt entitled to some relaxation. Of course, relaxation was expressed differently between the two; whilst Shinji just swung in a swing at the park they were in, Akira practiced her tai chi to calm her nerves because she was older and more refined than Shinji was. But neither one complained about how they chose to relieve themselves of their respective tension from the other day. This was also to remind them that even though the Gathering was to take place in this artificial city, they still could partake in the regular activities that most mortals took for granted.

"Aah," Shinji hissed, feeling the irritation from before in his hands again, seeing that they were almost smoking.

He got off the swing and speed-walked over to the bathroom. Once inside, he doused his hands in cold water, feeling the irritation subside. As strange as it seemed, this only started just after his second Angel-derived Quickening.

 _If the Angels are far older than human beings are, along with every other organism on the planet, then they're likely stronger than any army that has ever existed,_ he thought, looking at his left hand, which then started smoking again. "Gah!"

He quickly doused it in cold water again and felt fine again. Looking around the room and seeing that he was alone, Shinji sighed and decided to see the problem in its entirety. His hands became irritated, smoking up, like they were set to spontaneously ignite or something. They then started glowing bright pink, similar to the Fourth Angel's energy whips…and then they exploded into a cross between a fiery and watery display in front of him, and his minor irritation was gone; whatever pain he had felt from this was no more.

"Praise the gods," he gasped, waving his hands around. "I wonder…"

He closed his hands, thinking only of his hands without the strange power that he felt coursing through him. His hands stopped glowing and returned to normal.

Ring-ring-ring! His iPhone rang, and he sighed in irritation when he took it out of his blue hoodie to see who was calling him.

It was an unlisted number, and so he pressed the button on the right side to cancel the call; he wasn't going to have his day of relaxation cut short because of some nonsense he didn't need to be bothered with. Right now, he had to show Akira what he could now do.

-x-

"…He's still not answering his phone, sir," went Maya Ibuki to Gendo, having been the one to call the Third Child's cell phone.

"Do we know where he is?" Gendo demanded.

"He's…at the park with his aunt," went Makoto Hyuga, showing the Third Child at the location with his female caretaker, sitting in a swing whilst watching her perform tai chi.

"Try calling him again," Gendo ordered. "If he doesn't answer, have Section Two bring him here for more testing."

"Yes, sir.."

-x-

"…You'd best be careful when Takuya gives the okay for your bike to be used around these parts, Shinji," Akira told Shinji as they walked down the street; after her grandson showed her his newfound ability, not only was she impressed, but had to stress that this was something he use only when placed in jeopardy by something that came too close into his personal space, be they immortal or just in the way.

"Yes, ma'am," Shinji said, positive that his newfound power was under his control. "You think they'll have a problem with it?"

"I like to see them complain about it, since a regular bike wouldn't work for you, and bikes of these sort are legal so long as you have a license."

"Sometimes, I wonder how corrupt the world has become as a consequence of Second Impact."

"Insanely corrupted. It's a wonder how people survived such an unbelievable calamity that was instigated by an unforgivable few."

"Was anything simpler back in your day?"

"Only before the development of atomic power and the idiocy of war and politics."

"And when there were seasons."

"Yes, those, too."

"Do you think the Prize could be used to restore the planet to it previous state?"

"It's possible, but who knows. To the victor, I pray for their happiness."

"Same here."

Shinji then turned around and saw a pair of men in black suits a good distance behind them. He became irritated all over again.

Akira looked back and saw them, as well.

"Your father, I swear, is doing this only to piss us off," she sighed.

"Are you sure it's just him?"

"As I've yet to meet your mother and develop a personal opinion of her, I can't accuse her of anything beyond what you've informed me of."

"Sometimes, I don't know whether to shout at them for their incompetence or just give them a kick in the bottom."

"Honestly, Shinji, I think we both know which one they deserve."

Shinji then noticed a cafe just across the street and pointed it out by saying, "Akira, would you care for some coffee right now?"

"Huh?" She responded, and noticed the cafe was a Starbucks, one of the best places in the world to get a cup of joe on the go. "Uh, yeah, I need some bad."

They stepped into the Starbucks after crossing the street. Being inside the shop was something Shinji was hoping would result in having the men in black suits keep away for now, less they draw unwanted attention to themselves.

As he sat at a table by the window, the immortal boy sighed at the idiocy of the relatives that he despised for their choices and actions toward him. Away from them, he felt a type of freedom from the pain of being related to the Ikaris or his father that he never knew he could feel, but there were moments when he felt the minor migraines or heartburn that came from his past injuries that led to his immortality, and he really felt the hatred that he kept bottled up to keep from pushing himself over the edge and doing something to them that he didn't know whether was just beyond his capabilities…or just to justify his contempt towards them.

"Migraines again?" Akira asked when she returned with their drinks.

"Yeah," he sighed, and accepted his coffee. "There are times where I feel just a little tempted to go over the edge."

"You wouldn't be the first one to do so, Shinji. But would it really be worth it?"

"It'd feel a little worth it."

Akira chuckled and then looked out the window at the black suits. One of them tapped on the glass and pointed to a Sedan parked nearby with the NERV logo.

"You know, I wouldn't hold it against you if you wanted to knock some sense into Gendo's senseless skull," she expressed. "I would pay you to knock some sense into him."

"Now, we both know that there's no amount of any type of sense that's going to get inside a skull as thick and narrow as his," Shinji told her. "I do wonder, though, how he'd react to the sense of having his balls cut off and handed to him."

"Heh-heh-heh!"

-x-

"…We do hope that you enjoy your stay here in Tokyo-3, Ms. Akuma," the female hotel clerk said to the woman that gave an aura of discomfort around her.

"Thank you," Diana Akuma responded, picking up her room key card and heading towards the elevator. _Of all the places it could've happened in, it had to be here._

Once in the privacy of her suite (a large, sparse one with just the meager needs one required), she opened her case and removed a smaller case, setting on a small table and opening it, revealing an assortment of different pieces of a detailed sword. She picked up the primary portion, a detailed hilt that resembled a large piece of bone crafted to hold a large blade, and then picked up the cross-guard, an over-sized, doubled-sided, two-pronged fork piece that added added blades to both the primary blade and the hilt. Once connected, the woman set it aside to pick up three additional pieces that made up a long blade with a dual-edged ripple aspect to the blade.

Swing! She swung her sword once it was fully assembled, feeling it cut through the air with such power and grace.

Holding the sword that was so much like the sword she could no longer use because she couldn't bring it with her everywhere without attracting too much attention to herself that shattered her current alias, she chuckled gleefully at the dark joy she had.

"The time of the Gathering's upon us now," she uttered. "I'm coming for you immortals left in the world."

-x-

"…Hey, my phone didn't recognize any of those numbers and nobody was smart enough to leave a message for me respond to," Shinji told Misato angrily in the hallway inside the NERV base; after Section Two brought Shinji and Akira to the base, the two were separated and Shinji was to be questioned by the tactical captain.

Misato kept her distance because of the tanto the boy held in its sheathe in his grip.

"How can we be sure you didn't just ignore them calls and block them from your phone memory?" She asked him.

"You accusing of being the liar?" He retorted. "Hey, I don't have to answer the phone if I don't trust the number or don't know it. And there were no alarms going off, so there was no Angel attack, no city or people in peril. If the reason you waste my time is simply because of more testing or because that man that has yet to tell the actual truth, if he'll ever tell the truth at all, then you waste my time with such ridiculousness."

As much as Misato wanted to try and slap him right then and there, she couldn't fault him for his common sense. There was no report of an Angel, and he had every right to disregard unregistered numbers if he didn't want to be bothered by them.

"As much as I want to agree to with you on your choice of words, we don't have time for childish antics, Shinji," she told him instead.

"Childish antics?" Shinji questioned. "What do you expect from me, professionalism? I'm only fourteen! I can't be taken serious by most people because of my appearance unless I raise my goddamn voice!"

Right now, Misato wished Shinji looked his age so she could slap him right now, but then she'd probably be accused of child abuse, which NERV was doing every time they sent him or Rei out against an Angel.

-x-

"…If there was any danger, he would've told me," Akira told Gendo in his office. "Or I would've told him if you had bothered to call my phone. So what was really the reason you were bothering us today?"

"It's not for you to know anything," Gendo responded to her.

"Right, like it's not for Shinji to know the truth that you are withholding from him? You do know that the length of time he spends here is based solely on how long you continue to lie to him. He doesn't have the patience of a gentleman. He gets his patience from Takuya and I. I'd say that you have at least until the next time he sees you."

"I've already told him the truth."

"No, Gendo. Like your father before you, you told him only a thin layer of the truth. You say that these…Angels have declared war upon the human race, but not the reason to why. If you're not going to tell him the whole truth, then why should he bother continuing to do something that puts him in danger? He shouldn't have to do something that protects others he knows nothing about, even if he's made a few friends since he got here. Because he did have a life of his own that he was comfortable with…unlike you."

Fuyutsuki, who was also present in the office, wondered if this woman was trying to get Gendo riled up as some sort of payback.

"Ikari," he then spoke up. "Need you be reminded that it was you that told your son to come here in the first place? That it was you that had him pilot the Eva against the Angel? That it was you that didn't tell him the truth, even after he requested to know why?"

-x-

"…My interest in the truth is my business, Ms. Katsuragi," Shinji told Misato, getting out of the chair and walking towards the door to the room. "If that man has no interest in divulging all, then I know everything I need to know about the real situation, and these…Angels, these so-called enemies of the human race… I already know who the real enemy is…and it's hardly something as big as a building and attacks just one city instead of other places."

"So, you're just going to walk away from this?" Misato questioned him.

"I didn't say that, but you're quite perceptive of what I could do later on."

As he walked out of the room, Misato fumed over how Shinji treated NERV's situation because of his father's unwillingness to come clean with what was going on here, even though she was sure he was informed of the situation in its entirety.

-x-

"…He basically stopped having any hopes of the three of you getting back together before all of the lies and contempt," Akira informed Gendo as she got up and left out of his office. "Shinji simply can't delude himself with any dreams of a happy family if his own family originated on unstable foundations right from the start. Even when both his parents are present and accounted for, he's undeniably disappointed in the both of you, hardly because of who both of you are, but more so because of your choices."

"Like you're any better?" Gendo questioned her. "We're dealing with a war between an enemy we can't even begin to understand that will wipe out the human race, so we don't have time for any petulance from a child with issues."

"Issues that you and the Ikaris caused him."

"Only an infant needs his parents."

Akira was both surprised and disgusted by his choice of words.

"You sound just like him when you say those exact words, you know," she uttered.

"What?" He responded.

"You sound like your father. He said those exact words you just said when you were eight, when he left you, your mother and sister. He wouldn't even explain why he left."

"That's ancient history."

"Except history has a dark habit of repeating itself with those that fail to learn from it."

"You're not one to talk!"

"Oh, I am one to talk! I'm one to talk because you turned into the very thing you once said you detested about your own father, and that was how he treated people coldly! You treat people coldly in the exact same way! You cast your son aside and left him with your wife's relatives that were no better than you are, you send for him to come here under false pretenses, only to exploit him…and then lie to him about what's going on because you have an agenda that's as twisted as your screwed-up brain is! Or rather, you had an agenda…and you can't own up to it."

"Forget him, Akira," they all heard Shinji, who stood by the door to the office; none of them even noticed he had been there. "Talking to him is no different from talking to a rock. Unless it's a cool rock, like a quartz or piece of jade, nothing he says right now will be the truth. Instead, he'll say anything but the truth. And the worst thing of it is… I actually knew it was hopeless from the start that he would say anything of the truth before I even saw him that day I arrived. Absolutely hopeless."

"Why are you not in the plug undergoing testing?" Gendo asked him.

"There's no Angel, and therefore, no threat. Testing can happen after a catastrophe has been averted again…and again…and again. The day's still young and a lot can still get done that means a lot in a day."

Akira was surprised to hear Shinji say that; it was exactly what his paternal aunt and grandmother had said whenever things got difficult, something Gendo refused to accept, like it was a mantra or something.

Unfortunately, Gendo was just disgusted to hear those words. Nothing his son said, nothing this woman that stepped in and out of his past said, made any sense to a man like him.

"Akira, what do you call a person that wants only to be left alone in the world?" Shinji asked as she came over to him.

"The loneliest person in the world," she answered, "and a pitiable…and pitiless soul."

The two stepped out of the office and left Gendo alone with Fuyutsuki, who soon got the right idea to leave the room, as well. Whatever was going to happen next was best left for Gendo to go through alone.

-x-

"…He hasn't resigned so far," went Ritsuko to Misato as they were on the bridge in Central Dogma.

"Yeah, but I don't trust that Commander Ikari's going to let his son off the hook so quickly just because he and his aunt offended him so coldly by pointing out his flaws," the purple-haired woman responded, "and as for Shinji… Don't you just want to slap him half the time?"

"If he didn't have that tanto of his, I would. Half the time, I don't think his sense of logic is anywhere near ours. He sees the problem differently from an adult mind."

"Because he's still a child?"

"Yeah. His brain's still in development, not as mature as an adult brain. Sometimes, I wonder if he even thinks with his brain."

"It would be weirder if he chose to think with his heart over his brain."

"Maybe he does," the two turned around and saw Yui, carrying a tablet, going over different surveillance photos of Shinji and Akira as they left the base. "His mind is a cosmic labyrinth. Where some see only a sense of logic, he tries to see other options available to him in a given situation. Where others see only one path they can take forward into the future, he tries to find an alternative route that leads elsewhere in the present."

"And what brings you here, Mrs. Ikari?" Misato asked her.

"The same thing that brings us all here," she responded. "Our work."

-x-

Dinner was rather quiet with Shinji, Akira and Takuya being non-talkative at the moment, something the mortal man was not taking too well.

"You two have a bad time today?" He asked them.

"A bitter pill to swallow," Shinji and Akira expressed at the same time.

"I had to lash out at Gendo today about his behavior towards Shinji," Akira stated separately, just picking at her cilantro and chicken dumplings with her chopsticks. "I had to point out to him that he was behaving just as his father had been before he walked out on his family."

"This is the same piece of filth that you said charmed his way into your family, right?" Shinji asked; he didn't know much about his father's father, but knew enough to know that some of his father's behavior was picked up from the guy that left him.

"Yes, that's right, Shinji. I never saw the guy much over the ten years he shared with your paternal grandmother, but he wasn't as charming as he liked to convince himself that he was. Your father was eight when he took off. Your actual paternal aunt, Gendo's sister, would've been nine at the time. Rihoko had her concerns for her brother, that he was more sensitive to the issue than he might've let on."

Shinji had seen several pictures of his paternal aunt that Akira had stashed away from before Second Impact. Even pictures of his paternal grandmother, and he had to admit that the women on his father's side were better-looking than the men were, as his old man, even to today's standards, was no gentleman in terms of appearance.

"How'd Gendo take it?" Takuya asked Akira. "How'd he take being compared to the man that left his family?"

"I honestly hope this revelation's hammering in his thick skull," she answered him. "Just because his father abandoned them, it didn't give him the right to echo his actions and abandon Shinji."

"But how he deals with this revelation is entirely up to him," said Shinji. "He can either accept it like a man…or run from it like a coward."

-x-

All things considered, Gendo didn't so much as raise his voice or trash his office after the Third Child and his guardian left. But he wasn't by any means a calm person. He felt crossed to the extreme by both his son and the woman that took him in after an unimportant matter four years ago. And felt that both needed to be reminded who was in charge.

On his desk were three pictures of Shinji, Akira and Takuya, all three a tight-knit trio that he couldn't begin to understand because they were so…so…unruly. They were unruly, unbendable, puppets without strings, able to do as they please without much resistance, and this wasn't going to do for him. So his plan to…remedy the situation was thus: The next time an Angel attacked, while the Third Child wasted time contending with it, he would contend with his guardians…and have them disposed of. Once that was taken care of, he'd be short a problem or two.

To be continued…

A/N: Everyone who's read my previous works know that Gendo will often always resort to cruel tactics if he feels nothing is going his way. I'm considering a new poll concerning the jerk after posting this, so be on the lookout. Peace.


	6. Little Boy, New Trick

Creation began on 12-30-16

Creation ended on 01-09-16

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Immortal Ikari: Little Boy, New Trick

"…Oh, it feels like one-hundred-fifty years since we last met, Mrs. Rokubungi," said a young man in his mid to late-teens, sporting red hair that had a short ponytail in the back, green eyes, wearing a brown coat over a green jumper to Akira as she and Shinji waited for him to come up onto the bridge walkway where they scheduled their meeting.

"It has been one-hundred-fifty years, Quentin," Akira told him, holding her right hand out in front of them. "It's great to see you again."

Quentin MacLeod, a fellow immortal from the Clan MacLeod, a few decades younger than Connor and Duncan were when they experienced their First Deaths, responded in turn by raising his right arm out in front of himself.

Shinji watched as the two immortal friends clasped each other by the wrist.

"Is this Shinji?" Quentin asked, seeing how the little immortal sat on the railing over the artificial river.

"Yes," Akira answered, and Shinji bowed his head to the teenage immortal. "This is my grandson."

"Hello," Shinji greeted.

Quentin then took something out of his coat pocket. It was a stainless steel flask.

"I swear, Akira," he uttered to the older immortal, "ever since I got into mixing elixirs, this combo I developed makes you feel as large as Godzilla."

"Oh, really?" Shinji asked him. "Might I have a hit of that?"

"Go right ahead," Akira permitted; she trusted Quentin enough to not try to poison them. "It can't be worse than the other drink."

"You mean someone like you is still afraid of a little boom-boom?" Quentin chuckled.

"I needed three different types of beer to wash the taste out of my mouth."

Shinji drank some of the beverage and closed the flask and handed it back to Quentin.

"It's got cinnamon and cherry in it," he revealed.

"Gives it a bit of a sweet kick," Quentin explained.

"Oh, yeah… I definitely feel like the King of the Monsters right now. Large and in charge. I'm invincible right now."

"Eh-heh-heh!" Akira chuckled at him as she and Quentin leaned against the railing. "So far, Quentin, you're the only friendly immortal we've seen since we got here in Tokyo-3. What are the chances of any of our other friends and allies showing up later on?"

"We're all getting here as fast as we can," he expressed. "By foot, by boat, by plane, by theft. We all feel drawn to come here. But we know how it starts when the ones that are left all show up. Once we're all accounted for…"

"The battlefield of the Gathering becomes an all-out war between light and darkness," Shinji sighed.

"So, the Gathering's actually going to happen here? Hmm! Feels like time finally caught us by." Quentin sighed.

"Would you rather we go on like we've always have?" Akira asked him, helping herself to some of his elixir. "Hey, this is good here."

"I think we should party before we face our destiny."

"I'll always enjoy a party, but on the condition that nobody brings up my size." Shinji uttered.

"He has six regular Quickenings to his name, along with two Quickenings from these creatures called Angels that he's faced in the past few weeks."

It had been only a week since the last time they were at NERV, a brief period that allowed emotions to calm and return to normal between the immortal boy and most of the paramilitary personnel. Most because Shinji avoided his parents and the Ayanami girl at every opportunity.

"I did as much of a background check on this paramilitary agency you call NERV, and they're the smelting pot of a lot of rumors and recent disappearances over the last few years since its inception." Quentin explained to them.

"Undoubtedly due to the people that run it," said Shinji to him. "Those with hidden agendas that don't deal in benevolence for all of mankind will do anything to protect their secrets."

"You sound as though there are people there that you don't like very much."

"Well… I kinda do."

-x-

"…Of all the places, I gotta come to the one place I swore I wouldn't have minded avoiding," said a man as he stood on the hillside overlooking Tokyo-3, carrying a large gym bag.

-x-

"…Man, Shinji, I'll be praying for you to survive this thing when everyone shows up for it," said Toji to the immortal boy as he, Hikari and Kensuke accompanied him to the temple of Tokyo-3's eastern side to check its progress.

"Thank you, Toji," Shinji told him, but then stopped walking up the stone steps and looked at a thicket of trees and bushes nearby on the right.

"Shinji?" Kensuke asked, holding up his camcorder. "What is it?"

"I felt the presence of a nearby immortal," he explained, holding his tanto at his side. "They're not too far from us, but they're not coming any closer."

"Good or bad?" Hikari asked him.

"I can't tell unless they decide to come closer. I can't even tell who they are. Still, they must know that this place is getting recognized as holy ground, so we should be fine."

They resumed their walk up the steps, making it to the top to see the unfinished temple that would be used to practice religion and ensure neutral ground for the immortals. The temple was still getting worked on, with several planks of wood being installed as walls and support for the roof, the Plexiglass getting installed after it was decorated to give it the Shinto themes, and the small statues and figurines made to look like guardian lions and the four creatures associated with the constellations.

"These four animals you showed me a picture of yesterday, Shinji," went Hikari to the boy, "you said each temple was going to display one of them more than the other three?"

"Yeah, based on the location of the temple, the animal being displayed gets more recognition," he explained. "Since this is the eastern temple, the dragon will be recognized more here. The Temple of Seiryu, the Blue Dragon."

"North, South, East and West," said Kensuke, having read up on the mythology surrounding the four beasts. "The Snake and Tortoise of the North, often referred to as just the tortoise, the Red Crane of the South, the Blue Dragon of the East…and the White Tiger of the West."

"And it's the northern temple, the one meant for the snake and tortoise, that will be the first one completed?" Hikari asked.

"That's right," he answered. "I suppose the reptilian variety of deities will be prioritized over the mammalian and avian ones. We all have a reptilian aspect to our brains."

"I'm more into rabbits, thank you very much."

Shinji chuckled and expressed that he preferred tigers and bears over turtles and dragons half the time.

"Why bears?" Toji asked him.

"Ursa Major," he explained. "Known as _The Great Bear_. Often considered among the greatest of beasts that have a protective instinct over their young. I guess I have a weakness for honesty embraced by creatures that don't have a sense of immorality in their lives."

"Right, and they have nothing to do with your current estrangement from your parents that seem to have other things on their minds that are different from what they were supposed to be doing for your sake?" Kensuke asked him, to which Shinji simply sighed.

It seemed that, despite informing these three about how difficult it was to deal with his father's cruelty towards him for abandoning him at such a young age and the return of his mother, it was harder for Shinji to deal with his parents because of what they had planned over the years, and he confided in them and his grandparents what he knew. He had to clear the gutter half the time.

"Maybe, but you have to be me for a day to know how much of who affects how much of what," he told him.

"Honestly, Shinji," went Toji to him, "I think I could be you for a week…and I still wouldn't have a complete understanding of how your mind works."

"Sometimes, I'd rather be in anyone else's shoes than mine."

-x-

"…So whenever he's not at school or here, he's with these three classmates of his visiting the temples on the outskirts of the city," said Shigeru to Yui, showing her the layout of the geographical points of the four temples that served as the city's holy ground. "He seems energetic for a boy his size."

"I don't understand his fascination with temples, though," Yui expressed. "I didn't teach him anything about deities or praying or anything."

"What about your relatives?" He suggested. "He had to have picked it up from somewhere."

"Not my sister. I don't see Shinji as the type that would believe in deities from someone that hurt him to such an extreme."

"Well, the only other possibility are his relatives on his father's side. That aunt and uncle of his that he gets along with quite well."

"Yeah, maybe."

Suddenly, the alarms went off.

"Looks like we got ourselves another Angel today," went Hyuga.

-x-

The city sirens went off like crazy as the new Angel appeared just beyond the hillsides. It looked like a giant, blue diamond and sounded like a chorus of many thousands of people with megaphones in their possession.

On the roof of one of the buildings far from it, the sword-wielding woman with the attitude looked at the Angel and stated, "If you were human, I'd have no problem killing you. But since you're not, I'll just stand here and watch you do whatever it is you're going to do."

Suddenly, she saw something in the street open up…and a large, purple behemoth rose out, just in time to avoid a blast of energy from the diamond-like creature by erecting some sort of energy shield.

"Oh, that's impressive," she expressed.

-x-

Oh, Shinji was going to have words with the people that just sent him into a battle with no warning. This Angel just nearly took his head off! He was sure that Akira and Takuya were raising their voices toward Gendo and Misato about the danger.

"Where's the dickhead that didn't warn me of this Angel's ability?!" He shouted over the intercom.

"Oh, Ms. Katsuragi claims they had no awareness of energy blasts, Shinji," he heard Akira tell him.

"Okay, when this is over, I wanna smack her face. I wanna smack her, that bastard and the fake-ass blond along with the albino!"

"You survive this, Shinji, I'll hold them for you."

"I hope you two are joking," went Misato.

"Do we sound like we're joking?" They both questioned her.

-x-

Yui felt some relief that she wasn't included in the list of people that Shinji wanted to harm just because he wasn't informed of this Angel's energy beam. Yet she found it odd that he would want to harm an albino girl that he was keeping away from after an unwanted attempt on him by her. Looking over at Akira who watched the Eva with some measure of interest (though, it was probably directed towards Shinji, not the Eva), Yui wondered how someone like her got along with Shinji.

"The Eva's AT-Field can barely hold up," said Maya.

"If he can't pull a rabbit out of his hat, that Angel's going to eradicate the hillside right behind him," said Hyuga.

"The same hillside that just happens to have an unfinished temple?" Takuya questioned. "Shinji, you do realize that this Angel's going to go downtown on one of the temples, right?"

"Oh, Hell, no," said Shinji, and they all saw the Eva step forward, towards the Angel, looking like the armor was being singed. "An armored building? You can demolish that. The Geo-Front? You can have that, too. But one of the temples? I have to put my foot down on that!"

Suddenly, the Eva's hands started glowing like fire, literally on fire, and it looked like a blade of some sort manifested from its left hand.

-x-

Shinji, once he and Akira had managed to get some mastery over this new ability that they concluded was due to the Quickening from the Fourth Angel, put his new power to use, forming an energy katana, similar to what had been used by the Eva during the Third Angel, and used the energy blade to penetrate the Angel's hide.

"Ahhhhh! Ahhhh!" The Angel shrieked, ceasing its energy blast.

With an opening, Shinji charged forward, pushing the Angel out of the city (he did so with such force that the Umbilical Cable tore right off the back). Once away from the hillsides (and the temples), he conjured another blade of energy from his right hand and penetrated the Angel's hide again.

-x-

"Damn, and all for the temples?" Hyuga questioned, seeing Unit-01 push the large Angel against a scorched hillside (the same one that was incinerated due to the Quickening caused by the previous Angel) and then began stabbing at it with its energy blades.

"Where the Hell did he learn to do that?" Ritsuko asked, concerned because the Eva shouldn't have been capable of such a feat (even though it did so the first time).

"Akira?" Misato asked the immortal guardian of Shinji.

"I was going to ask you the same thing," she lied to her. "Shinji never did anything of this sort. Didn't you upgrade the Eva or something?"

"You know I couldn't tell you, even if I wanted to. Classified information."

"Then I just have to assume that this is something your people did."

"Same here," added Takuya, backing up his wife's lie; he'd seen Shinji's new trick and was impressed by the degree of control he exhibited. "You made a giant robot that only knows how to fight. Somehow, someway…you managed to cross the line between mortals and deities. I'm only hoping that Shinji survives this."

The Eva continued to stab at the Angel, until it stopped and knocked away a large portion of its crystalline-like exterior, revealing the Angel's core, looking as though it connected to the body by many of its vein-like strands, giving the impression that it was some sort of mutation.

"We gotta have that," said Ritsuko, imagining the possibilities that NERV could achieve with an intact core in their possession. "Shinji, whatever you do, don't…"

But Unit-01 shattered the core with a hardened punch.

"Damage the core," she sighed.

"Doctor Akagi, he turned his intercom off two minutes ago," Maya informed her. "He hasn't heard anything we've said, including orders."

Suddenly, the Angel's remains levitated up off the ground with the Eva, unleashing electrical surges around the scorched hill.

"This…is getting numb," said Misato.

 _The less any of you know, the better for Shinji,_ thought Akira, who then turned around to face Gendo, who was looking down at her and Takuya. _The less any of you know, the better for Shinji._

-x-

"Hmm… Shinji Ikari," the woman on the roof said, recognizing the effects of a Quickening and identifying the recipient. "You're bound to be a fascinating person when I see you."

-x-

"…I never thought one could receive a Quickening that powerful," the man that just stumbled into the city expressed, also recognizing the effects of a Quickening and identifying the recipient of it, watching the purple behemoth fall to its knees. "So child immortals really do exist."

-x-

Once more, he felt empowered by the Quickening derived from the Angel, along with all its memories and abilities. If they weren't so discomforting more than half the time, Shinji would've had something positive to say about them besides the feeling of invincibility. Right now, he felt like he needed a drink real bad. Anything to numb the uneasiness he felt right now.

After five minutes, he decided to switch the intercom back on.

"Problem dealt with," he uttered.

"Good job, Shinji," he heard Takuya say to him.

"Oh, come on!" He heard Dr. Akagi express. "You could've left the Angel intact!"

"The last time I checked, NERV as a whole declared the Angels, each and every one of them, a threat to all of mankind if left alive. If an Angel's a threat, put it down for good. If an Angel never shows up, that's another time where nobody has to worry about something they know nothing about because the media gets whitewashed to exclude any understanding of them." Shinji responded, being cold in his sense of logic. "You want an intact Angel? Tell me of one that doesn't want to harm people. Until then, these things are like some people that don't deserve a chance at redemption; they're better off laid waste to for the sake of others."

He then turned the intercom back off.

-x-

"Oh, no, he didn't," Ritsuko stated, feeling disrespected.

"Oh, yes, he did," went Takuya, quite pleased with what Shinji said to her. "He stated the obvious, and he defeated you with the common sense you people fed him when he got here. You tell him that these creatures are a threat, to get rid of them, and he does just that. You never said anything about preserving one unharmed for you to work on."

"This is probably his perception of getting payback for you sending him out there when the Angel attacked him without so much as a warning to what it was capable of," added Akira.

Misato looked at her like she crossed a line saying that.

"Well, you did. Don't try and shift blame."

"You think you could talk him out of wanting to smack me?" She asked her.

"I could…but then he'd probably have to do it at another time where it feels right."

"You do know that his mother is right behind us."

Akira turned to see Yui and then sighed as she turned back to face Misato.

"And what is that knowledge supposed to mean?" She asked her.

Misato then turned to face Yui and got the feeling that things between Shinji and his folks were just too estranged to make sense of any sense of reconciliation ever occurring between them because of their respective distance.

"Does Shinji even talk to her?" She asked.

"I don't ask, he doesn't tell," Akira lied.

-x-

Nine Quickenings now. Nine! There had to be a record for a certain number of Quickenings obtained within a short number of years that Shinji was probably breaking. If not that, then at least a record of Quickenings obtained from non-human immortals that were far greater than what was normally experienced.

"Ah…" Shinji sighed, laying on the bench in the locker room, looking up at the ceiling. "I seriously need a cold drink."

He had showered, changed back into his clothes and took a small breather before calling it a day at NERV. The strangest thing now was that his senses were beyond what they had been prior to defeating Ramiel and claiming his power. It was like a sense that was different from what he felt when another immortal with lethal intent was nearby, like he could feel potential danger all around him now.

"…Accidents will happen," he suddenly heard his father's voice, and got up off the bench.

"You had best hope that Shinji doesn't take what you just said to me personal," he heard Takuya's voice, and grabbed his tanto and ran out of the locker room.

The hall was empty, but he knew he heard them talking. If it was somewhere else in the building, then Shinji's hearing was beyond superhuman, able to hear things happening from beyond his range. He took out his cell phone and called Takuya's number.

"Takuya Rokubungi speaking," his grandfather spoke.

"It's Shinji," he responded. "I'm probably just experiencing some temporary insanity, but was that jerk-off just talking to you a moment ago?"

"Your father?"

"He's the only jerk-off I know of."

"I think you're very sane, and he was talking to me. Akira went to the restroom and he just approached me, saying that life is short and that…"

"Accidents will happen," Shinji cut him off.

"Yeah, he said that."

"Okay, I'm taking this very personal. Blood ties be damned if something were to happen to either you or Akira and those two…Ikaris had something to do with it."

"You and I both know that Akira is the tougher out of the two of us."

"It wouldn't matter to me if you were both ninety and in wheelchairs. If my old man threatened you, he crossed a line. I'll feed him to the wolves if I have to."

-x-

"…We're fortunate that the new surge protectors kept the equipment from being fried," said Ritsuko to Gendo and Fuyutsuki, "but the Angel's remains are no better than the other two. One's reduced to organic diamond, the second transmuted into pure lead, and now one's become no different from granite after that strange phenomenon that occurs after their deaths."

"And anything within a certain range of them gets electrocuted, burnt or damaged," went Fuyutsuki. "Has the boy said anything about his personal experience with the Fifth Angel?"

"Nothing he'll probably confide in his aunt and uncle later," she suggested. "Is it strange that he's unconcerned with the city buildings whenever an Angel attacks, yet he takes drastic measures to protect a temple being built?"

"Maybe he just feels that these temples just need to be protected. His guardians did put in the request for them to be built around the city."

"What of Unit-01?" Gendo asked, wanting to know about any damage to the Eva.

"Other than the minor singe from the Angel's energy beam, it's undamaged," Ritsuko explained. "The Third Child's synchronization ratio reached a new high score during the last sortie. He was at six-hundred-fifty percent."

"But that's not possible," Fuyutsuki expressed, concerned. "Anything as high as four-hundred percent is approaching the danger zone."

"That was probably before the original pilot was recovered. With Unit-01's core being a complete blank slate, it's anyone's guess at how the Third Child can sync with it to such extremes without any detrimental effects to himself."

"No detrimental effects, whatsoever?"

"None. No high blood pressure, no change in brain chemistry, no emotional instability, besides what he seems to have about his parents, nothing. The kid's a complete enigma. If his hair started aging prematurely to white, I'd say he was somewhat affected by the piloting, but, like with all previous testing and blood evaluations, he's not all that different from any other small child."

"What about the First Child?" Gendo asked. "Wasn't an attempt to sync her with the Eva tried?"

"Yes…and it failed," Ritsuko answered. "She was able to sync with it prior to the original pilot's recovery, but after the core was transmuted, it's like the Eva doesn't recognize her. She even made a complain about how the Eva seemed…too much like the Third Child now, like his presence was echoed by the Eva, including his dislike of her for trying attack him that night."

"We really need to know what the Third Child's hiding."

"That's if he's hiding anything, Ikari," Fuyutsuki told him. "And we're the ones hiding things from him that he's sure to find out about the less we inform him. You're not going to be able to keep manipulating him for long. Just tell him what's really going on here before he jumps to his own conclusions that may not be far from the truth."

-x-

Unfortunately, Shinji had written notes that kept his facts straight about what was going on at NERV so that he knew about the truth. He kept them hidden in his room. So far, what his father hadn't told him was that there was something called instrumentality, which added up to the eradication of all life on the planet, no matter which side was the victor, how such a move was a falsehood belief to becoming a deity, to have power over life and death, to remove the flaws of all living things and smash their spiritual boundaries, even removing the boundaries between Heaven and Hell. If it wasn't so sickening, Shinji would've almost viewed it with some admiration. But he was smarter than to believe in that nonsense.

Even if his parents had their own variations for the outcome, there was just no hope for anyone if this were to happen. His father aimed to become God so that he had control over everything, to create a world of his own where it consisted of only himself and his wife.

 _If he wants her so badly, he can have her all to himself,_ he thought, writing up more notes in his room to hide away unless he needed to talk about them.

His mother's agenda was to make him decide the final fate of all mankind, that the only reason she and Gendo got together was to have him, and he was beyond outraged by this revelation. If people only had children out of some destiny concept and not out of pure love and devotion or some other acceptable belief, then they were no better than fiends and their kids were screwed for life.

The Angels, they just wanted to reunite with Adam, who they thought was at NERV, but were really being lured there by something else, something that related to Unit-01 in some way, but Shinji was still in the dark about that. Once he ascertained the truth to that, whether he was told or found out on his own through other means, all bets were off. There would be no forgiveness towards his parents, no hiding the truth from anyone that spend more than a minute listening to him, or any mercy to the years of deception that he'd been fed when he was still mortal and had lost all sense of sense before his mother's sister killed him.

"The Angels, the Gathering, the Game, the Prize, the fate of the world," he uttered, looking at his tanto at his bedside. "This is like a persecution of the masses or something. I need a sign that some of the blessings I get in this life actually count for something and not all that I am counts for nothing."

Meanwhile, in the living room, Akira, who had been informed that Gendo had, more or less, made a threat to her and Takuya, was pacing in front of her husband.

"He can't kill me, no matter what he tries," she uttered, "but you're as vulnerable as anyone else is. A black sheep, yeah. A loose cannon, totally. A man that abandons his child, obviously. But a man that will kill, out of contempt, even his own relatives? He crosses that line…"

"How much of his behavior can really be attributed to his father?" Takuya asked her.

"His father was a lousy charmer. He wasn't even a ladies' man. I mean, he could act the type, but he was really pathetic. Then one day, he just changed. He packed his things and left his family. If he got into some bad road with somebody, he never said who or why. And after Second Impact, I wouldn't put any hope in ever finding out why he left if he's dead."

"But…he never harmed anyone, right?"

"None that we knew of. But just because he never harmed anyone back then, it doesn't mean that Gendo is incapable of such cruelty. Anyone's capable of anything. All they need…is the will to act."

"What did we get ourselves into the day we let Shinji go see his father in this awful city? We must've been fooling ourselves to think it was some sort of potential reconciliation."

"Takuya, it's nothing we did. It's what Shinji's parents did. As far as we know and from what Shinji told us, this is a madness that was going on since before Second Impact, before we even met him that day four years ago."

"I never say this enough because we need to keep up the ruse, but I love my grandson, regardless of who his parents are. He's among the kindest of souls to have ever walked the Earth."

-x-

Even though the temple was unfinished, the strange man decided that, since it was still declared holy ground, it was better than nothing, and it was a safe haven.

 _Not even the most vile of immortals will desecrate holy ground,_ he thought, looking up at the night sky.

"Ooh, if only it were that easy for me to find every immortal!" He heard a female voice, a very inhuman female voice, and he looked towards the stone steps at a woman the likes of which he had never seen before. "Oh, have no fear…much. I was just out for a little stroll. I don't bring my sword unless I have headhunting in mind."

The man frowned and uttered, "How do I know immortals such as you don't try to find loopholes in the Rules? You can't desecrate holy ground, but you don't seem like the type to let a rule stop you from you claiming one's head."

"Oh, you'd be right about that, but you're lucky I can't exploit any type of loophole in the Rules…even if I wanted to. I have to respect the lives of other immortals on holy ground. I could grab you by your neck, but if I go beyond that act, I'd be the one to pay for my cruelty. I shall be on my way now."

The woman turned away and went down the steps, leaving the man alone…and bothered.

 _I've never encountered a woman as inhuman as her before. She makes the worst women in history, past and present, pale in comparison to her. Lizzie Borden, Andrea Yates_ _…_ _Kami, who was she?_ He wondered, feeling the coldest chill run down his spine.

-x-

"…Can't sleep, either?" Akira asked Shinji, seeing him on the roof of their building, using his tanto in to stab at imaginary targets.

"It's hard to sleep when you have a nightmare of the end of the world," he told her, holding the hilt of his tanto in his left hand and keeping it from his chest with his right palm, jabbing at an imaginary target in between them. "I woke up two hours ago. Been up here ever since."

Akira sat down in front of him and said, "Tell me what your nightmare was like."

Shinji sighed and re-sheathed his tanto and set it down in front of her.

"The blue sky turned red," he started, "violet pillars of light shot out of the ground, the moon became stained with a streak of red…and many people died. Men and women, children, babies, all reduced to pulp, their souls taken from them…and a giant woman that wore a face that wasn't hers took those souls for her own purpose, twisted and unforgivable."

"That's terrible," Akira told him.

"It gets weirder," he responded. "Not everyone was taken. I must've saw at least six people left on the ground, which was reduced to a barren wasteland. They all had swords. I couldn't see their faces, but they had faced each other like there was nothing left to do. I think they were immortals, unable to be taken by the woman that took all the other souls, protected by the Quickening powers, and were left to fight for the Prize."

Akira raised her right hand up and placed it on his left shoulder.

"This giant woman have a name to go with her terrible disposition?" She asked him.

"Yeah," he answered her. "Lilith. The so-called first wife of Adam before Eve, according to the Bible."

"Can I ask you a hypothetical question, Shinji?"

"Feel free."

"Do you find it disturbing that NERV is spelled the same way the German word for 'nerve' is spelled?"

"Yeah, I do find it disturbing that it's spelled that way. The same way I find it disturbing that its predecessor organization was named the German word for 'brain'. My most recent Quickening also stirred up another word that's German that I wrote down hours ago. The word for 'soul', seele. Why are they using German words for agencies? Worst, why are they working for agencies with German words? Are some of these people…too smart for their own good?"

"Ever since the development of social media, I don't think anyone bothers to question the overall sanity of one's intellect."

"In order words, you don't know, either?"

"Bingo. I know that we're both moderately smarter than we should, but not like prodigies, and we fit in with certain others quite well. Who can say for certain that anyone is anything beyond the sum of their intellect. Except for Gendo. He seems very feeble-minded for the head of an agency tasked with saving the human race."

"Heh-heh-heh! Yeah, he does seem that way. How'd he get picked to do it, anyway? What, the powers that be couldn't find anyone better than him?"

"People too smart for their own good? People too dumb to know that some people aren't worth entrusting important work to? Sick and depraved people?"

"Sick and depraved, Akira. Sick and depraved."

-x-

"…This is the fourth time we tried with Rei, Dr. Akagi," went Maya to Ritsuko as they were running another synchronization test with Rei inside Unit-01. "The Eva just won't sync with her."

"With Unit-00, the sync ratio is low, but within acceptable parameters," Ritsuko sighed, unsure why this particular Eva was being problematic, "but with Unit-01, before the commander's wife was recovered from it, was within the same parameters. Now, there's just no synchronization occurring at all. Commander Ikari is not gonna like this."

"But so long as we have the Third Child, everything should be within achieving the goal of saving mankind, right?" Maya asked her. "I mean, he has defeated three Angels. Even with these strange phenomenons that occur after their defeats, and with the increased synchronization, his value to NERV must be greater."

"Yes, except he has a problem with authority. Or at least our authority. He doesn't seem particular to any orders he's given when it comes to the Angels. Captain Katsuragi ordered him to use the Pellet Rifle and he uses the Prog. Knife to deal with the Fourth Angel because he can't stand firearms."

"Or maybe…"

"Maybe, what?"

"Or maybe he just sees an alternative way to do something that others may disagree with him doing. He hasn't lived with his parents in over a decade and he doesn't seem to enjoy their company like he does his paternal aunt and uncle. I can't even imagine him being related to Commander Ikari, even if he looked a little older."

Truth be told, Ritsuko had to agree with Maya. Shinji, because of his toddler-like appearance, didn't seem to exhibit any of his father's features. The kid could pass for a feminine, male version of his mother, but without the intellectual qualities that got Yui where she was in her life. But the boy didn't seem to demonstrate any of his mother's qualities, either, like he was their child…but something about him made it impossible for him to be anything like them.

"Maya, what is your opinion of the Third Child?" She asked her.

"He's someone that clearly knows more than he lets on," Maya expressed, "and may have it in for his parents if he feels he's being lied to by them."

"But do you think he's capable of walking away from NERV should his parents be found lying to him about everything they tell him?"

"As a person… I believe this young man is capable of anything if he feels he's been crossed by someone that did something to him. I mean, he was nearly killed by his maternal aunt and still has the scar from when she stabbed him in the chest. It's probably by mere luck that he hasn't decided to pay her a visit only to do to her what she did to him, even if there wasn't a restraining order in place that prohibited her from having any contact with him."

After eight more minutes, Ritsuko decided to give the sync test a rest and told Rei she could vacate the Entry Plug. The First Child was just unable to sync with the purple Eva any longer.

"If Rei can no longer synchronize with Unit-01, we'll be delayed with the advancement of the autopilot system requirement," she sighed.

"You mean, the Dummy System?" Maya questioned, uncomfortable with the very idea of implementing that system due to her personal beliefs that it was simply unnecessary.

"Yeah. Even if we do have the Third Child, anything can happen to him, regardless of the security methods we employ. The same applies to the other pilots…and…something can happen that can bring their reliability into question, so the human element has to be substituted…if not replaced."

-x-

The next day, it was made official that the northern temple was completed and could be used by the public to practice their religious beliefs.

Of course, Shinji was among the first people there to be there to simply meditate.

Akira went with him, as well, since meditation was among her pastimes.

Section Two, under orders to keep track of the Third Child, were unable to be within a certain distance of the temple since their presence was akin to loitering.

-x-

"Section Two reported that he and his paternal aunt were in the temple for four hours, doing nothing but meditating," said Fuyutsuki to Gendo, informing him of the report Section Two gave him earlier. "It's surprising that he was able to sit in a temple for four hours without losing focus."

"He's been sitting in an Entry Plug for hours at a time," Gendo responded, looking at a picture that corresponded with the report Section Two gave about the boy at the temple, but looking at the tanto he had with him tied around his right hip.

-x-

"Hmm?" Akira and Shinji went, walking down the stones of the western temple that was still two days from being completed.

"How long do you think we have now, Akira?" Shinji asked her, referring to the days leading to the Gathering's inevitability because he knew he felt the presence of a nearby immortal.

"Probably another week," she answered. "Maybe less than that."

"Oh, it's gonna be intense."

"Not just that. It's gonna be a war."

"I'll do my best to avoid you until later."

"Likewise."

As hard as it was probably going to be for both of them when everyone arrived for the Gathering, they aimed to refrain from fighting one another until the inevitability of them having no choice…with only the temples as their refuge.

To be continued…


	7. It has begun

Creation began on 01-09-17

Creation ended on 01-16-17

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Immortal Ikari: It has begun

A/N: The battle of the immortals is here!

"…Is everything alright at home, Shinji?" Toji asked the little boy as they, Kensuke and Hikari were on the school roof eating their lunch. "You look rather…restless."

It wasn't unnoticed by Kensuke or Hikari, either, that Shinji seemed to be unable to remain still lately for the last two days. The boy seemed to pace back and forth by the fence as he looked at them.

"Sorry," he apologized to them. "Akira and I, along with any other immortal that has arrived into the city, have started to feel the effects of the Gathering's pull on us. We haven't done anything extreme yet, but none of us are able to ignore the pull. Pretty soon, we'll be drawn to meet somewhere in as close to the center of the city as possible so that we all know who's who. Everyone, friend or foe, will have to face one another to claim the Prize. Only three of the temples have been completed, but they're only a temporary refuge for any of us that want to prolong the inevitable outcome. I'm sorry, but do I seem crazy when I speak and pace back and forth at the same time?"

"No, you don't," said Hikari to him. "You just seem nervous when you do."

"You should see Akira. When I left the apartment, she was cooking enough meals to feed thirty people. That was probably her way of dealing with the problem. I know I must sound crazy when I say this, but I don't want to have to face her in the end, even if it's inevitable. I could probably handle it if it were someone I despised a lot, like my father, may his soul burn in Hell, but I can't handle facing Akira. I mean, she's not just my teacher in the knowledge of what to do and what not to do in the shadow world of the immortals, she's family, and I love her."

They saw him stop pacing and fall to his bottom on the ground.

"I don't want to lose my head…and I don't want her to lose hers, either."

The three could see how this was affecting Shinji heavily. How could any of them relate to his situation that was far different from any other situation they might've heard of? Most of the time, it could've been a situation where one had to be forced to kill a friend or loved one because you were being manipulated by a criminal or were trapped underground with limited supplies and the darkness and claustrophobia deteriorated your mind and moral compass. But they didn't know how to compare any of these situations to one where you were unable to die unless beheaded by another person that was unable to die…and you did so only to survive in some sort of struggle between light and darkness, good and evil, to be the last one standing.

"Where there's light, there's hope, Shinji," Hikari suggested to him, trying to remind him that there might still be ways to walk away from the possibility of having to face his ancestress.

-x-

Even though it was still holy ground, the mysterious man hid on the grounds of the temple couldn't resist the pull of wherever it was he had to go in the city, and followed it to wherever in the city he had to go to meet the other immortals that were gathering.

 _The more you fight it, the harder it is to resist,_ he thought, walking down the stone steps of the western temple, going straight towards the city.

-x-

Dressed in a summer yukata and concealing her katana in a decorative traveling tube, Akira wandered around the streets of Tokyo-3 to wherever she was supposed to meet the other immortals left in the world that had gathered here. With the strongest of pulls, she had to deduce that everyone that was here was all within the city, having settled wherever they could and were as ready as they ever could be for the inevitable outcome that was at hand. She looked at her iPhone and checked the time, and sighed at how it was likely that Shinji was within the city, as well.

 _Of course, that's assuming that he hasn't already left the school during school hours,_ she thought, but she knew that Shinji wouldn't be able to resist, either.

-x-

"…Mister Ikari," went the teacher to Shinji, who suddenly got up and walked towards the classroom door. "Class hasn't let out yet."

But Shinji wasn't listening. He just opened the door and stepped out of the room.

The students looked at Hikari, who did nothing to stop him from going, and were wondering why.

"Uh, Kensuke, didn't you mention earlier that something terrible happened to Shinji?" Hikari asked the military otaku, improvising a lie.

"Uh, yeah, I did," he picked up on the ruse. "Prolonged exposure to a untested chemical over at NERV may have resulted in a non-contagious illness that strikes at his lower intestines. He was allowed to attend school for a brief period today, but then he had to go to NERV HQ to start his medication."

"Oh, gosh! I can't believe I forgot about that," added Toji in the ruse. "He looked fine to me when I saw him earlier today. I hope he'll be alright."

Unfortunately, Rei was the only one that knew that this was nothing more than a lie. Something else was up with the Third Child. Something that didn't involve NERV, whatsoever.

Shinji ran out of the school building and down the street, towards the taller buildings in the city.

 _Where shall we meet?_ He wondered.

-x-

"…This is strange," went Shigeru in Central Dogma, looking over the geography of the city above the Geo-Front.

"What's strange?" Maya and Hyuga asked him.

"There's a strange flow of energy readings occurring in the city's power grid," he explained. "It looks similar to lay lines."

"What the heck are lay lines?" Maya questioned.

"They're an old myth of supernatural energy that occurs within certain places during certain times," Hyuga answered her, looking at the console monitor. "Except those don't look like any lay lines I've ever seen before."

The lay lines in question resembled a series of circles, triangles, squares and rectangles made into a shape that resembled a type of sun with a crescent moon on its left side with a strange "X" surrounding it, and it encompassed most of the city.

"Looks like something a kid drew," Shigeru expressed.

"Extremely," added Maya.

-x-

There were so many people in the city where Shinji was wandering right now to find the location where the other immortals were meeting. He had to run in between several legs just to cross the street, upsetting a few people that saw him.

Whoosh! He felt the presence of other immortals nearby, and looked up towards a skyscraper with a large Taoist symbol on the side and what looked like shrubbery on the roof.

He felt drawn to the building, and crossed the next street to get to his new destination.

-x-

The Taoist Building Fountain Garden was among the tallest buildings in Tokyo-3 and the location of where the immortals had gathered for their meeting.

"My Kami," sighed Akira, seeing the artificial grass and marble fountains that led to a large circle with the incorporated Taoist symbol where you could walk onto it. "Never in my years of living to see remarkable places like this have I expected to see a fountain garden like this before."

"You said it, Akira," went Quentin to the woman.

"Akira Rokubungi," said a female immortal with a thick, French accent, dressed in an evening dress with her head shaved on the sides with the remaining hair on her top tied into a ponytail. "I haven't seen or heard from you in seventy-three years."

The French immortal Akira knew only as Le Femme Aceline back when they first met on the Eiffel Tower…and managed to avoid her fury by escaping to Notre-Dame by parachuting to safety. She had, apparently, changed her looks to blend in with people of today's generation, despite still being the cold-hearted forty-two-year-old she had seen and disliked for her pre-emptive strike on her.

"Le Femme Aceline…I think," she addressed the woman that nearly killed her that night all those decades ago. "Unless, of course, you've changed your name."

"I've been called Madeline for the last twenty years," the woman responded. "Maybe now that the Gathering's in force, we'll pick up where we left off that night in Paris."

"Not until you go through me," said a dark-skinned immortal man, dressed in a red tracksuit with sunglasses. "I call dibs on the princess before you, evil queen."

"I didn't think you would be here, Jose," Akira addressed the man.

Only nineteen immortals had arrived, and Akira only recognized twelve of them as mainly friends and allies over the years…with the others being foes because she didn't know them.

"Aren't we shy an immortal?" A woman asked, which sent a chill down everyone else's spine.

It was the woman known as Diana Akuma, who stood away from the others, throwing cold glares to each of them, only seeing them as obstacles on her path to untold powers that awaited her.

Le Femme Aceline, or Madeline, looked at her and gasped.

"You must be her," she uttered. "The one they call The Demoness."

Most of the older immortals all looked at Diana and felt nothing but intimidation. Even Akira herself was unable to hide her fear of this woman…and they also had history.

"The Demoness," she uttered, "second only to The Kurgan. Where he was considered the strongest of the immortals, you're considered the deadliest."

"The Kurgan," Diana, or rather The Demoness, responded. "Not too long ago, I sought out that Russian outcast only to claim his head and all of his power. I was hoping for a great battle between the strongest and the deadliest immortals, only to be disappointed when I heard that he was beheaded by Connor MacLeod. Oh, I was sad for the first time in many centuries. The Kurgan wasn't as strong as many believed him to be. But I got over it. The head of the immortal that beat him was adequate compensation for my slights."

With those words, Akira and Quentin were left displeased with this revelation; neither knew of the immortal that killed Connor. And if this woman killed him, then it was possible that she killed Duncan, as well.

"So what do you hope to gain out of this?" Quentin asked her.

"Heh-heh-heh… The Prize," she answered him, "and each of your heads. But you failed to answer my question. Aren't we shy an immortal? Some little boy?"

"Nope," they all heard a little boy's voice and turned to some steps where said immortal boy had just came. "Wow. I didn't expect to see so many."

"My God," the immortal Jose gasped. "They truly do exist. Immortal children."

"This day continues to bear gifts," Le Femme Aceline expressed. "I've never seen a child immortal so young…or as handsome."

"Back off, Aceline," Akira threatened her. "Go near him, and I will take your head off."

Shinji went over to Akira and saw an immortal man that was…disturbingly odd.

"That man," he expressed to his grandmother, and she saw him…and immediately wished she hadn't because of a memory that returned.

 _So, he's an immortal himself,_ she thought, unable to believe this because it seemed to explain only a few things and left other things that needed to be explained. "The world's gotten smaller now."

The man looked at them…and recognized the woman as one he had seen years ago, and turned his head away towards Le Femme Aceline.

"Twenty immortals," The Demoness uttered. "Twenty adversaries. But only nineteen heads will fall in order to win the Game and claim the Prize."

"And to the victor go the spoils," said Aceline, "but not here…and not today. This is only a meeting between immortals. At the stroke of midnight…the Gathering becomes an all-out war. Every immortal for themselves. See you around, Akira. I'll be sure to bring my sword with me the next time I see you."

And with that, Aceline turned and walked towards the steps to vacate the fountain garden.

The Demoness followed suit, leaving the others to their own activities while she returned to her current dwellings to prepare further for the battles that lay ahead.

"Peace out, Akira," went Jose as he left, giving the elder woman a fist bump.

"Always a pleasure, Akira," said Quentin to her as he left, but he stuck around to say more. "I hope you don't face The Demoness. I want her head for my own reasons."

"If you face her, be careful," she warned him. "She's not to be taken lightly. If she did beat Connor, who beat The Kurgan, then she has their powers add to her own, which is formidable."

Quetin sighed and would keep that in mind.

"Good luck," he told them both.

All the other immortals left, except for Shinji, Akira and the man they saw that wasn't looking at them.

"Do you know who that man is?" Shinji asked Akira, who sighed heavily.

"I fear I do," she responded, which only helped to confuse him.

They then approached the man, enabling Shinji to get a better look at him up close. The guy was clearly in his late-thirties, dressed in worn-out jeans, a faded shirt and trench coat, and a long, blue scarf tied around his neck. His facial features were almost comparable to Gendo's, but less skin on the cheeks and a smaller nose and blue eyes, with his hair shorter and only one bang hanging over his nose.

"I am Akira Rokubungi," Akira introduced herself. "Who are you?"

"Masaki," he responded, and his voice tone echoed different memories in both grandmother and grandson. "Masaki Nagisa."

"And before then?" Akira asked him.

"Takeru Nagisa."

"I knew it. Takeru, the man that married one of my many granddaughters, Kaede, and had two children with her, only to leave them after a decade. I hope you can give me a reason not to want your head."

Shinji couldn't believe he was standing in front of his other grandfather, his father's father, who had somehow achieved immortality through a First Death. It would've made sense to some of what happened over the many years that passed.

"I didn't really want to leave Kaede or our children, but I didn't want to endanger them by being around them," Takeru explained. "I was out grocery shopping one evening…and I took a shortcut through an alley…where a gang fight occurred."

"There were reports of gang fights that escalated in the neighborhood," Akira responded. "Street gangs trying to claim more territory from rival gangs."

"I saw two teens with guns shooting at everything, and I tried to get away, only to get shot twice in the back. My last thoughts were of dying in that alley…until I woke up moments later…when everyone was gone. I didn't know if it was a blessing or a curse when I got up and went home, but I didn't want to talk about it."

"Not many people find immortality to be a blessing when they discover what it brings. So what did you discover later on?"

"I met a man that was traveling one day in the town, called himself Duncan MacLeod, and for a few days told me about what was going on and what was in store for me, about the Game, the Rules, the Prize and how I had to protect my head. Terror filled my veins when I learned there were others out there, those that actually look for other immortals, purposely, to claim their heads. The fear of what they could've done to me wasn't my greatest, however, it was what they could've done to Kaede, Rihoko and Gendo had I stayed with them."

"So you abandoned your family," went Shinji, "said cruel things on the way out…because you feared for their safety from other immortals?"

"Believe me, not a day went by where I regretted saying those cold-hearted things I said. I couldn't risk their safety by staying. I wanted to go back many times, but I always felt the presence of some immortal nearby. So I stayed away."

"Even after Second Impact?" Akira asked him. "How did you manage to survive all these years?"

"I stayed out of the Game by doing what was the only thing possible: I stayed on holy ground for as long as possible, wherever it existed."

"Wait, if you stayed out of the Game, then…that means you never fought against other immortals. You've never experienced a Quickening?" Shinji asked him, which would've been…unreal to him.

"It was bad enough being killed over a meaningless pursuit of territory, I wasn't about to become a killer for something that might've been greater than mere territory," Takeru explained to them. "Even if there was a chance of just being permitted to grow old and die, I wasn't going to kill for it, no matter how much I wanted it. I lack the willingness to do what is necessary in that department."

"At least you were able to walk away from the Game for that long," Shinji expressed, giving him praise for something he couldn't do then. "If I were in your place at the time, I would've walked away, too. Unfortunately, I can't now. Gotta do what I can to stay alive…because I want to live to see old age like those around me."

"You believe the Prize to be…the right to live as a mortal again?"

"What the Prize is and what it entitles…depends upon the one left standing to receive it. In the end, there can be only one…and in the end, there will be only one. I just hope it's a benevolent immortal."

"Well, rest assured, as much as I want to be benevolent, I won't play the Game," he said to him, and then looked to Akira. "If you want my head, it's yours. I won't try to fight you."

Akira sighed and responded, "No. As much as I despised you for leaving your family, taking your head would be the wrong thing to do. If there's a way for you to return to mortality without playing the Game, the ones that do play it are bound to find it, eventually. So long as you stay on holy ground, your safety is assured. I would suggest that you see your son, but Gendo is… Well, let's just say that, all things considered, he's not a man anyone can hope to understand right now."

"My son is alive?"

"Yeah, just not a nice guy," said Shinji. "I hate who he is and what he's done…and what he wants to do. I get that he's your son and all, but he's a monster."

"You're Gendo's son?"

"Not one of the things I'm proud of, but yes, I am."

"But…you don't look even remotely like him. You…you honestly look more like your grandmother and aunt."

"Some say I get my looks more from my mother, but we're not on good terms, either. It's a long story."

"Filled with grief and manipulation," added Akira.

Takeru sighed as realization kicked in that his leaving his family years ago had a detrimental effect on Gendo…and didn't reflect well upon his grandson.

"My apologies for whatever Gendo has done to you both," he stated.

"It's not really me he's done anything to," Akira told him. "It's just Shinji here. Your actions were echoed by Gendo when Shinji was less than four years old, after his mother's so-called death. It's impossible to mend a relationship between parents and children that won't be."

-x-

"…So, the Third Child just up and left the school?" Gendo asked Rei, who returned to NERV HQ shortly after school was let out, in his office.

"Yes, Commander Ikari," she answered him.

"And he gave no indication of where he was going?"

"No, sir."

Gendo then sighed; none of the Section Two agents tasked with keeping an eye on the Third Child were able to locate him after he left the school, with their only excuse being that they didn't expect to be tasked with finding a little boy. Truth be told, the boy would've been easier to track if he'd been microchipped like a cat or dog, then he couldn't get away from people that were charged with keeping watch over him. But even if he could convince Yui to agree to it, there was a chance that those people the boy lived with would be against it, along with the boy himself.

"Dismissed," he told Rei, who turned and left out the office.

"Well," went Fuyutsuki to Gendo, "what do you intend to do if something has happened to him? If this skipping of class and leaving the school was something his guardians had no awareness of, they can't be held accountable for his whereabouts."

"The Section Two agents I tasked with watching their apartment will inform us of his return if he goes back there," Gendo answered him.

"And if he doesn't?"

Gendo didn't respond.

-x-

All things considered, not even cheeseburgers and fries could lift Akira's spirits after that meeting of the immortals atop the Taoist Building. There were revelations that just shook other beliefs and unmade them for what they once meant. For the longest time, she, and by extension, Takuya and Shinji, were led to believe that Takeru had abandoned his family because he was just some asshole that grew tired of being a family man. Now, after so many years, she knew the truth…and it bothered her to know that Takeru was an immortal that left his family to keep them safe from harm by other immortals that would've came after them. She couldn't hate the man for doing what he did as much as she had before; every immortal had to make hard choices, to leave their family for their safety, and he was one of them, and he paid a heavy price for doing so.

Shinji, dipping a nugget into barbecue sauce, tried to think of a scenario in which his father and grandfather met and an explanation could be made on why things happened the way they did. But each imagined encounter between the aged son and the immortal father ended up going wrong. He just kept seeing Takeru being used as a lab rat by his son, trying to find a way to gain immortality for himself.

"We can't tell the bastard that his old man is here at all, can we, Akira?" He asked her.

"I don't think we can tell him anything, Shinji," she responded. "How could we tell him the truth when he himself won't tell the truth? He's probably lied so many times, he doesn't know what the truth is. And Takeru… He's regretted what he's done for years, and he can't change Gendo, no matter what he tries. His son's a terminal case of megalomania with a pack of dynamite ready to go off."

"Not dynamite, Akira. An atom bomb, and we all wanna get far away if that happens."

"Yeah, Shinji."

-x-

"…With the bolts tightened, Shinji shouldn't have a problem getting around on this now," Takuya told himself as he finished securing Shinji's bike so that his grandson could have more freedom around the city streets.

Of course, the bike meant for Shinji wasn't a tricycle or unicycle. Because there were no bikes suited to his size, Takuya and Akira built Shinji a minibike. It wasn't all that hard, since all three of them had knowledge of mechanics (something both Akira and Shinji received from basic studying and the Quickenings of their fallen adversaries that had before being beheaded while he himself had the luxury of just reading up and knowing the parts needed to construct a bike). Although, because Shinji was striving to be clean-energy reliant, the bike engine had to be either electrical or run on a clean and renewable source, such as biodiesel.

"Hello, Mr. Rokubungi," he heard a female say behind him, and he turned to see the woman.

It was Yui, blocking the sunlight he used to make the final checkup for Shinji's bike.

"Miss Ikari," he addressed, picking up a rag and wiping his hands clean of elbow grease. "What brings you here to this grease monkey pit?"

"I was wondering if you knew where Shinji was," she told him.

Takuya looked at his watch and it was past after school hours for Shinji to be out and about. If he wasn't at NERV or with Akira, he was likely at one of the temples.

"Well, if he's not with Akira, he's likely at one of the temples," he suggested.

"He left school early today, and nobody's been able to find him."

"If anyone can find him, it's Akira. She always knows where to find him."

"How can you be so sure of this?"

Getting up to his feet, Takuya responded, "Akira is just one of those people who is beyond compare with other people of today's generation, and Shinji took to her faster than he took to me."

"Yet, neither of you bring up his unchanged state of being, why he hasn't aged beyond the state of development he was at when…he was harmed." Yui stated.

"If it's not broken, don't try to fix it. Sometimes, people develop slower than others. Physical growth can be stunted, however, by many factors. In Shinji's case, it's childhood trauma. It's not everyday you find yourself brutally attacked by a caregiver that was able to fool the authorities into believing she was just temporarily insane. While he has gotten over it, he can't forgive they who have hurt him, either directly or indirectly. Anyway, I don't poke at something that isn't my business to poke at. I'm just glad that he's involved in my life, same as Akira."

Again, Yui was reminded that after her alleged death, Gendo entrusted her sister with their son's well-being, and that ended up being the wrong choice.

Ring-ring-ring! A cell phone rang, and Yui picked up hers.

"Yes?" She went. "Really? He is? They are? Thank you."

When she hung up, she explained that Shinji was just seen in the city with Akira at one of the parks.

"You worry too much over nothing," Takuya told her. "Not everything happens as it must or should happen as we expect them to."

As Yui turned to leave, she recognized his choice of words to say to her. It was almost an opposite to what she had told Fuyutsuki when Shinji was still a baby, how she felt everything happens as they must, but the chances of him knowing what to say to counter her beliefs were slim to none. She then turned and walked away as he closed the garage door.

-x-

"…Laying down," went Shinji as he laid his head on Akira's lap as she sat on a bench in the park. "Nice way to ease digestion."

"Once again, I told you not to eat that many nuggets," Akira told him.

They were out until the sun went down. Neither wanted to go home just yet.

"You sure nobody's going to try something until the next day?" Shinji asked her.

"That's how the Gathering works," she told him. "We show up, once we're all here, we go to meet so that we are all able to know who will be involved and who you must face to survive. Come midnight, however, none of us are safe, except on holy ground."

"That woman… The one who was called The Demoness… I've never met someone that gave me chills that lingered even after meeting them hours ago. Who is she, anyway?"

"The Demoness is an ancient immortal, far older than any of the previous ones I've encountered over the past. She's before the Bible, she's before the Tower of Babel, the Egyptians and other ancient civilizations long gone. Even older than The Kurgan was before he died. I don't know how old she really is, but some of the other immortals whose ages are in the quadruple digits believe she's been around for over ten-thousand years."

Shinji turned his head to face hers and uttered, "If she's truly that old, then there's no telling what she's capable of. She's beyond anything I've seen before. Beyond beyond."

"If you face her, be careful. Child immortals lack the strength of adult immortals, but I got faith that the skills I've imparted to you, along with your recent skills developed, will give you an edge against her."

"Somehow, I don't think she'll be easy for anyone, no matter who goes up against her. I may need the edge of my recent development."

"The Angel-endowed Quickenings?"

"If I can obtain a few more of those, I might be on even ground with her if I face her."

"I believe you, so I'm saving her for last myself."

"Good luck in the coming days."

"Same to you."

-x-

"…Strange, finding you here this late at night, Yui," said Fuyutsuki to the young woman standing in front of Unit-01 in the cages. "I thought you'd try to reconnect with Shinji after finding out he was with Akira in the city."

"I thought about it, but then I realized something," Yui responded to him.

"Which is?"

"I think Shinji knows a lot more than he lets on. A lot more. How this is so, I don't know. It may relate to why he hasn't aged in four years."

"By 'a lot more', you mean, what we're doing?"

"Yeah, and we need to know how much he knows."

"What makes you think this?"

"Something his uncle said to me earlier today when I went to see him. _'Not everything happens as it must or should happen as we expect them to'_. It's like a reverse of what I said years ago."

"Couldn't that have just been a coincidence?"

"It's hard to believe in coincidences when you have an Eva that shouldn't function without an order-working core working for a little boy that's not supposed to be little…but does…and is."

-x-

The Demoness looked out at the city below her feet, barely able to hold her excitement back until the stroke of midnight. Just a few more minutes away, and then nothing could hold her back.

"Oh, so many immortals to behead and so little time," she uttered, raising up her sword. "An eternity spent waiting for this glorious moment. Wandering in and out of failed civilizations that lacked the necessary means to endure like I did. Unworthy men and women have taken this world and turned it into a desolate wasteland upon which to thrive on. With the power of the Prize, I will wipe this realm clean and make it mine for eternity."

Beep-beep! Her cell phone went off to signal that it was now midnight.

There was now nothing holding any of the immortals back from the full power of the Gathering. And The Demoness had every intention of becoming the last of the immortals.

"There can be only one!" She shouted, and jumped off the rooftop she was on, going after the first immortal she laid her eyes on for their Quickening. "Ah-ha-ha!"

To be Continued…

A/N: Twenty immortals, but only nineteen will be playing the Game…and only one will be left standing. But who will be the one?


	8. Accelerated Interference

Creation began on 01-16-17

Creation ended on 01-29-16

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Immortal Ikari: Accelerated Interference

For all intents and purposes, Shinji and Akira didn't sleep well last night. Both immortals found it difficult because every time they did, they always found themselves waking up every other hour. The other worst thing of it was both slept with their swords within reach, just in case they needed to protect themselves from unexpected conflicts with enemy immortals.

"Ugh," Shinji groaned as he sat at the kitchen table that morning as his grandparents came in.

"Ugh," Akira groaned back as she dragged herself over to the coffee pot and poured herself a cup.

"No dead wife or grandson, please," said Takuya to them, hoping that neither would go after the other because they were adversaries in a great battle between light and darkness. "Shinji, we should probably call your school and say you'll be out sick for a while."

"No, Takuya," Shinji responded to him. "There's doubt that any immortal would visit a school just to harass another immortal that needs to blend in with the ordinary classmates."

"Except I don't trust the two you and Akira mentioned last night. Le Femme Aceline and The Demoness. As far as I'm concerned, they're both most likely to come after you at any time."

"Le Femme Aceline likes to toy with her victims before taking them out," said Akira. "The more attractive her target, the more she wants to prolong her satisfaction in a battle."

Whoosh! Both Shinji and Akira felt the presence of an immortal outside their apartment, and quickly grabbed their swords.

"You two wait here," Takuya sighed and walked over to the door in the hall.

They didn't detect lethal intent from this immortal, but they still needed to be cautious.

"Is Akira here?" They heard a male voice ask Takuya. "I have to talk to her! It's about that woman. Aceline or whatever she calls herself."

Akira and Shinji went to the hall to see that it was Jose, whose clothes from the previous day were now dirty and ripped with cuts, drenched in sweat.

"What about Aceline?" Akira asked him.

"It was after midnight," he started. "I was defending myself from the other lunatic woman, The Demoness, who came after me because I was nearby, when suddenly, she just ditched our fight and went after her the moment she showed up at the park where we were fighting. She had me right where she wanted me in the end…and she chose not to take my head. That didn't make any sense at all. I thought I was dead, right then and there, but she took one look at Aceline and said, _"I will be the only one left with the hidden safety net of immortals"_. Does that mean anything to you?"

"Hidden safety net of immortals? No, that means nothing to me."

"If it means something to The Demoness, then it must be something of value that only Aceline has that she wants for herself," Shinji suggested.

"I'm going after her once I've rested," Jose declared, indicating that he wasn't going to come after either them or anyone else until after he dealt with The Demoness. "If either of you go after Aceline, I wish you the best of luck."

"Thank you, Jose," Akira told him, and clasped his right wrist in a respectful manner. "Best of luck to you as you face The Demoness. May your abilities ensure your survival."

"As does yours and Shinji's, Akira," he responded back, and he left them alone.

Akira sighed and looked down at Shinji.

"Aceline can't beat The Demoness, can she?" He asked her.

"No, she can't. Her safest bet will be to run for holy ground. The Demoness can't harm her there."

"Then we'll check the temples."

"Shinji, you have school…"

"Not right now. Whatever this secret that Aceline has that this deadly hussy wants, we should get it before she does."

This was the Game, and they both needed to play it, regardless of the requirements of their needing to have a normal life in their shadow lives.

"I'll check two temples, you check two temples," she suggested.

"Works for me," he agreed.

"You're gonna need your wheels, then, Shinji," went Takuya to them. "You're in luck that they're finally ready for you."

"Thanks, Takuya."

-x-

"…Unit-00 won't be fully repaired for another week, so they're sending the Second Child and Unit-02 ahead of schedule," went Gendo to Yui in his office. "We're also increasing the monitoring of our son's activities. After yesterday's minor fiasco, we need to be more aware of where he is."

"Will that be enough to ensure that we'll know where he is when he isn't here…or at their home?" Yui asked him, having yet to tell her husband what she suspected of their son.

Ring-ring! Gendo's phone rang, and he picked up.

"Yes?" He questioned. "When was this?"

When he hung up, Yui got worried about the reason behind the call.

"Shinji didn't show up for school today," he told her. "Instead, he seems to be…joyriding."

"Joyriding?" She questioned. "His guardians and he are riding around somewhere?"

"Actually, he's by himself on a minibike."

"A minibike? That small bike Takuya was working on when I went to see him yesterday… I should've asked him who it was for or why he was working on it."

They had done a background check on Takuya and Akira after Shinji had called them into the city the day after his arrival to face the Third Angel, and found that Takuya Rokubungi not only married into the Rokubungi family, but had a degree in mechanics and had once worked at an auto shop before retiring due to a leg injury ten years ago. But none of them suspected that the man was still working as a self-employed mechanic or was just building a bike for Shinji to get around. Their background check on Akira was very thin due to some missing records because of Second Impact, but one of the things they were able to ascertain about the so-called paternal aunt of Shinji was that she wasn't exactly his aunt, but more like a great-aunt (as Gendo only had one sister, and she was dead).

"He was working on a minibike yesterday?" Gendo asked her.

-x-

The refined engine and the biodiesel were working well for his minibike as Shinji sped down the streets towards the western temple. He had never ridden as fast as this before since he, Takuya and Akira started working on the bike. The feeling of the wind flowing past your body as you travel faster than your legs ever could. It was a joyous thrill to experience, even if he had to wear a bike helmet with goggles for the sake of safety measures.

Once the temple was within view, he slowed down and stopped at the foot of the stone steps below. He got off and put on the tube case that held his jian and walked up the stone steps towards the temple. So far, he didn't feel the presence of any immortals, but it could've been due to the distance, requiring him to get closer to his target. But as he got closer to the temple, there was no feeling of any immortal present, whether they had lethal intention or not. This led Shinji to assume that Aceline was not at the temple here.

"Dammit," he sighed, turning around and going back down the steps.

Ring! His phone rang, and he saw that was Akira calling.

"Yeah?" He spoke up.

"I just left the northern temple," she informed him. "She wasn't there. I'm about to go over to the eastern temple and see if she's over there. There haven't been any Quickenings so far, so she has to be alive. How's your search?"

"The western temple's vacant of immortals. Since you're going to the east, I'll try the south. The bike surges like a Quickening. I'll call you back when I get to the temple."

"Okay. Stay safe."

"You, too."

He hung up and ran down to his bike. As soon as he got back on, a black Sedan showed up and blew his mood.

"This is not the time for unwanted attention," he sighed.

Four men got out as he turned the engine on.

"Shinji Ikari," said the agent on the driver's side, "we're here under orders from Commander Ikari to escort you back to NERV HQ."

"I'm sorry, but I have other things that I have to attend to," he told them, and quickly drove off before they could grab at him, speeding away down the street.

-x-

Through the city's traffic surveillance system, the command bridge in Central Dogma observed the Third Child on the minibike as he sped away from the Section Two agents.

"He just ditched his security detail," said Shigeru to Maya and Hyuga.

"Whoa, he's hauling ass out there," added Hyuga, watching the scene through a camera from further down the street as he turned a corner. "But where is he heading?"

"That was the western temple location," Maya explained. "He could be going towards the southern temple or the eastern temple."

Above the three, Gendo and Fuyutsuki were individually wondering what the boy was doing out there and on a minibike.

"It seems that this young man has something else on his mind," said Fuyutsuki to Gendo. "Whatever his reason for being out there, he must not want to be followed by anyone."

"He will need to be questioned more thoroughly when he's reacquired," Gendo responded; whatever it was his son was doing, he wanted it to stop before something happened to him that jeopardized his use as a pilot, even though it seemed as though his usage was already in question.

-x-

Akira sighed as walked down the steps of the eastern temple, disappointed that Aceline wasn't at the temple like she had hoped. Now she had to get to the southern temple quickly before something happened to her grandson. It wasn't like she doubted Shinji's ability to survive an encounter with an enemy immortal, but she still had her own maternal instincts when it came to her descendants. And it wasn't like she doubted the maternal feelings of Yui Ikari, but she had seen her share of women with children that, more or less, rarely exhibited the typical devotion that a maternally-influenced person was supposed to exhibit, and often found herself questioning why people with the urge to understand science and technology chose to have children…and then, there was what Shinji confided in her and Takuya about her agenda, which brought into question her sense of morality.

 _You'd better be alright, Shinji,_ she hoped as she got into the Prius and drove off.

Suddenly, he cell phone went off and she put it on the dashboard so that she could talk without the need to hold it to her ear.

"This is Akira Rokubungi speaking," she greeted whoever was calling her.

"Let's cease the pleasantries," came Gendo's voice over the speakers. "Do you know where the boy is?"

It was the way he said it that disgusted her. Instead of saying his son's name, he just referred to him as his gender designation, like he was some sort of piece of property, not a person. She just wanted to hang up on him and go about her day before the phone rang.

"What are you talking about?" She asked him, coming to a red light on the road. "Who are you talking about? There are many boys running around the city, you'll have to specific with your questions."

"Do you know where Shinji Ikari is, Mrs. Rokubungi?" A different male voice asked her.

"I'm on my way to see him right now," she responded back. "It's nothing you really need to be concerned about."

"The problem is that we feel concerned about his behavior, as he ran off from his security detail on a minibike after being found at one of the temples you helped to have built."

"I assure you when I say that the reason Shinji's temple hopping is nothing you need to be concerned about. And Shinji needed a way to get around places on his own, since he can't ride a regular bike. He's had safety training and knows to wear a helmet and protective padding. Whatever your reasoning for wanting to know what's going on, it's not for you to be concerned with."

"But you are aware of the potential ramifications of what could happen if something happens to him, are you not?" Gendo returned and asked, just as the light turned green and Akira resumed her drive to the southern temple.

"Nothing's going to happen to Shinji. He's been with Takuya and I long enough to know the difference between danger and safety. Out of curiosity, Gendo, why do you even care what happens to him? It's already known that you don't have a soft spot for Shinji. Why the sudden concern?"

"That's not your concern."

"This conversation ended two minutes ago."

She ended the call and turned a corner on the road.

-x-

The southern temple representing Suzaku, like the other temples, was very quiet. But as Shinji walked up the stone steps, he felt the presence of two immortals. As he sighed, he kept the reminding thought that just because they were on holy ground now, there wouldn't be much ease between them.

"Brace yourself, Shinji," he told himself, reaching the top and entering the temple, seeing Takeru sitting on one side of the temple and Aceline sitting on the other side; both were the only occupants present within the temple. "I seek only the peace that comes from meditation on holy ground."

Takeru looked at him and responded, "Feel free to come and sit wherever you wish. Here, we learn only to tolerate one another, no matter our differences."

Shinji walked over to Aceline and sat on a floor mat in front of her. The woman's clothing, consisting of just a blue, loose top and red skirt, had several cuts and rips, indicative of a conflict that occurred recently and she was just barely able to get away with her head still attached to her shoulders.

"How do you feel?" He asked her kindly.

She looked at him and responded, "Like the Leviathan tried to devour me last night before the rising of the sun. The Leviathan being a woman that was beyond even myself. I couldn't beat her. I had no choice but to flee to holy ground, where safety was assured."

He bowed his head to her noticed her sword in its scabbard, seeing that it was a large falchion, much larger and cleaner than a regular falchion.

"It must take great strength to wield a sword like that," he told her.

"You have no idea," she responded, leaning against a wooden pillar, inhaling a new breath. "It's not my first sword, but one I am rather found of because men believed that women were unfit to wield swords. I proved men wrong by taking my first sword and besting one of them in fair combat. Over the next few years came further sword training and customization of select swords, my First Death, learning about the Game and Rules, gaining power and so on."

Then, after inhaling a new breath himself, Shinji had to speak of the reason he had come here looking for her.

"The reason I am here right now," he stated, "is because The Demoness was after for something you know of. Something she called a safety net for immortals. What is it that you know?"

"Why should I tell you anything?" She asked him.

"Because, unlike you and The Demoness, probably, I have someone I don't want to have to face in the end only to lose them," he answered her. "If this safety net exists for immortals, I desire it only to ensure nobody will suffer. I want to believe in there being ways around problems, loopholes to get out of situations that are so dangerous that you have no chance of walking out alive…unless you have nothing worth taking or giving."

"You honestly think what I know is worth knowing about?"

"If The Demoness wants what you have, then it has to mean something to everyone else that get curious about it, the opposite of what is everything to one and nothing to all."

"I'm not big on riddles."

"The mind, Aceline," said Takeru to them. "The mind is everything to the one that owns it and is nothing to everyone else that can't see it."

"You can't beat The Demoness, no matter what you try, and your only salvation is holy ground. If you know something that can change the potential of the Game, then you have an obligation to divulge what it is. I'm only saying this all because I don't want to fight you or anyone else unless I have no choice but to defend my head."

Aceline chuckled at his would-be cynical reactions to whatever he thought she knew that The Demoness wanted to take from her.

"I could tell you what I know," she uttered to them, "but it wouldn't change anything because you don't have the power to change anything. If you want the power…you have to take my head."

"You never make anything easy for anyone, Aceline!" They all heard Akira's voice; the immortal matriarch of the Rokubungi family had stepped into the temple just two minutes ago and heard everything. "Do you really want to go down that path?"

"Hey, I didn't ask to know about this after I took the head of my thirty-fourth enemy. It just got dumped onto me, just like every other skill or memory I get from other immortals."

Akira then looked behind her and saw some men in black suits coming up the steps.

"Suits," she sighed.

"They're here for me," Shinji told her. "How do you get rid of a security detail you didn't even ask for to follow you around?"

"You're not the first immortal to have a bunch of bodyguards at the leash," Aceline told him.

"No, but I'm probably the only child immortal that doesn't want protection unless I ask for it."

Takeru sighed and got up off his floor mat.

"Run across the woods," he told Shinji. "They can't be everywhere if they don't know where to look."

He walked past Akira and rushed down the steps.

"What are you thinking?" She asked him, but he was too far gone down the steps.

"Hey, what you dumb nuts doing here, harassing a little boy that don't want you invading his privacy?" Takeru asked the Section Two agents, shoving back one of them on the steps. "What's your problem? What, a kid can't go to a temple to meditate and pray to his deities without a bunch of thugs hassling him or something? Go sell your crud elsewhere!"

 _Damn, he knows how to make a fool of himself,_ Akira thought, seeing her in-law shove two more guys back down the stairs.

Just then, they both saw one of the suits pull out a pistol, and Takeru panicked and shoved the guy all the way back down the steps.

"Hey, hey! No guns here!" He shouted at the agents. "No guns on holy ground! Godzilla wouldn't use a gun to save his best friends!"

"Eh-heh-heh!" Aceline, who had decided to watch the scene take place, laughed at the guy. "I like him! He's funny."

Akira frowned at her and then shoved her back into the temple herself.

"Get back on the floor and pray, girl," she ordered her, returning her gaze to Takeru, who just shoved the remaining agents down the steps.

-x-

Shinji, using the time to get out of the temple through the backdoor and through the woods, ran down the hill and past the agents to get to his bike. He jumped over a bush and onto the ground beside his bike and then got on it.

"Stop!" He heard a man yell at him, and he saw a suit getting out of the Sedan parked several feet away from him. "Stay where you are!"

 _I will know this secret,_ he thought, and drove off before the suit could reach down and grab him. _If Aceline wants to survive, she'll stay in the temple until further notice._

-x-

"…This is the second time he has ditched his security detail at a temple," said Hyuga to his co-workers. "This boy really doesn't want to be followed or watched by people assigned watch him for his own protection."

Gendo folded his hands in front of his face and frowned upon the Third Child's reluctance to follow the simplest of directions.

"Who is that man they're dealing with?" Fuyutsuki asked, as the holographic displays showed Section Two agents dragging a man away from the temple steps.

"Hey, man, we was mediating peacefully until you showed up and pissed us off! Leave the boy alone!" The man shouted at them as they shoved him into their Sedan. "The first chance I get, I'm busting the balls of you Secret Service wannabes! You know something, I want to talk to Gendo Rokubungi-Ikari! I wanna talk to Gendo Tetsuo Rokubungi-Ikari, right now! Not now, but right now!"

Below the two commanders, Misato and Ritsuko looked at one another and were immediately thinking the same thing: Who gives their child the middle name Tetsuo?

But Gendo was shocked to hear this; nobody knew his middle name…except for his dead relatives.

-x-

Once he had gotten far from the temple, Shinji stopped his bike at a park and removed his helmet to breathe normally.

"Those NERV workers and I are gonna have words if this was their perception of keeping watch over me when I don't want them to," he told himself, shutting his eyes. "Is it too much to ask to not be followed by people?"

Whoosh! He felt the presence of another immortal nearby…followed by another immortal.

Clash! The sound of swords clashing alerted Shinji to a nearby battle between two immortals, and he drove his bike over to observe whoever they were, for better or worse.

On the far side of the park where the view of the lake was not as grand, Shinji saw that was Quentin engaged in battle with another man he didn't know. It looked intense, the skills developed over the ages that revolved around the use of the sword. And he had to admit that he was impressed by the MacLeod's strength.

The other immortal was likely of German descent, a nobody from a long time ago, drawn into the Game for the Prize.

Clash! Their swords clashed again, and Shinji was hoping that Quentin prevailed over the other guy; the cruelest part of the Rules regarding battle was that it always had to be one-on-one, no matter what.

Even if Shinji of Akira wanted to, they couldn't intervene in any battle, not even to save a friend or loved one.

"Aaaurgh!" Quentin growled, swinging his sword, a katana that seemed similar to Akira's, and cutting the guy's head off.

 _Yes!_ Shinji cheered mentally as the enemy immortal fell to the ground. _He did it!_

Looking around them, Shinji felt they were fortunate enough that nobody else was around to see the battle, and wouldn't see the aftermath of it.

"Aaaaurgh! Urgh!" Quentin howled in agony as he received the Quickening of his foe, empowering him further, levitating off the ground with the dead man's remains. "Aah!"

Each Quickening had to be unique to each immortal, because Quentin's was just levitation and wind blowing around him, with minor electrical energy encircling his arms. And it only lasted for half a minute, but still had the same aftereffects of exhaustion, falling to the ground and trying to catch his breath quickly.

"Are you alright, Quentin?" Shinji asked him.

"Yeah, I'll be alright," he answered back, getting up. "You're not here to claim my head, are you?"

"I don't want your head. If there were a way to walk away from this, I'd rather have that than end the life of a friend or ally."

"The Demoness, should you ever face her, won't be willing to walk away from what she feels should be hers. She's a stone cold killer and crazy as Hell."

"I know, I still get chills hearing her voice in my memory."

"Ugh, this guy was scared to death of her. He was hoping that by taking me out, he'd have confidence in facing her."

"Didn't he have anyone else to motivate him to face her?"

"Unfortunately, he was a loner. Didn't have any friends or allies…and didn't want any."

"What about you, Quentin? You have anyone waiting for you to come out of this all?"

"Yeah, my sister, Clyde."

"Clyde Dundee MacLeod?"

"The one and only."

Quentin took his wallet out and showed the boy a picture of his sister. She looked around his age, but was probably younger than him, with long, red hair, dressed in a brownish-red dress with yellow-orange leggings. There was a large, yellowish dog with her on the grass where the picture had been taken, most likely a Great Pyrenees.

"Adorable," Shinji expressed; he meant what he said. "Really."

"Thank you," Quentin praised him.

Whoosh! They both felt the presence of a new immortal, and looked further away from them, seeing The Demoness, watching them like a hawk watching its select prey.

And then, she smiled at them. It was the way she smiled that caught them off guard. Her teeth were like fangs, and her eyes glowing red.

Shinji and Quentin also noticed that she didn't have her sword with her, but didn't want to risk facing her right then, and both fled from the park the first chance they had.

"I'm going to find at least two other immortals I know I can best," Quentin told Shinji, who got on his bike and rode off.

"Best of luck to you!" He responded and fled to the nearest patch of holy ground he could get to.

-x-

Yui was at a loss for words at how Shinji was just given a minibike and was able to ride it away from the security detail…or the guy that seemed to know who her husband was.

"Has anyone seen or heard from him since this morning?" She asked Captain Katsuragi after reviewing the recorded footage Section Two had on what occurred a few hours ago.

"We're hoping that Akira will divulge his whereabouts, but she's currently meditating at the southern temple with this other women while her husband is at home," Misato responded. "Three attempts were made to call his phone, but he doesn't know any of the numbers, as they weren't added to his contact list, and he isn't answering his texts or voice messages."

"Those two give him too much freedom," went Ritsuko to them. "They let him run around like he should be without a care in the world when our future's at stake."

"Unfortunately, Rits, he'd likely act this way around any of us with his mindset, regardless of who he lives with. It's not like he can be brainwashed into being someone he's not."

"He could if he was."

Yui was going to pretend that she didn't hear the daughter of Naoko Akagi say that; even if it were possible, it would just feel wrong to do such a thing to Shinji, to strip him of his identity and his flaws.

-x-

Shinji had to deduce that even with the full power of the Game in force, NERV was going to interfere with his role in it, no matter what he did to get away from them. Even if he ran to the temples to gain refuge during the in-between times of conflict between the immortals, his father was going to get in the way every chance he got until something else happened…to either of them that made it so that they couldn't get in the way any further. This…was what he meditated on as he sat in front of the marbled dragon of the eastern temple where he sought refuge. And if this was how things were going to be, it also meant that NERV was likely to discover things that they had no business knowing about because they couldn't even begin to understand.

 _And if everyone knew that people that couldn't die were among them and locked in a war between the darkness and light, they'd want to be immortal, too,_ he thought, bowing his head to the dragon. _Immortality isn't meant for everyone. Those films that deal with the concepts of time and eternity educate people more than they realize, like Bicentennial Man or In Time. If everyone has an unending lifespan and powers beyond imagination, what would be the point of living? Life without death, no unknowns, no unpredictabilities… And no end to the number of immortals that would exist in the future. We can't all live without death on the planet. Where would we put everyone if we couldn't all be here? Immortal animals and machines, maybe, but not people._

The sound of footsteps came from behind him a few feet away.

"Shinji Ikari," a man's voice uttered as several more footsteps came into the temple. "Enough is enough. We have your bike and the temple is surrounded. We can either do this the hard way or the easy way."

The immortal boy opened his eyes, having closed them early in his meditation, and looked up at five men in suits.

"Okay, then," he sighed, getting up off the floor mat. "It's hard enough to think about the benefits of forgiveness when you find yourself being bothered by those you don't know if you can forgive for their transgressions or trespasses."

-x-

"…You want him to win the Game, don't you?" Aceline asked Akira, as they had nothing else to do but meditate or leave the temple.

"I don't want him to have to pay the ultimate price we will all have to pay, eventually," Akira responded to her. "As precious as he is to me, my grandson is still a foundling and hasn't been alive long enough to develop the cynicism that older immortals exhibit. But don't think that for a second he won't take you out. If you don't want to walk away from conflict, knowing that you're the one that will instigate it, he will fight to protect himself from harm."

"But it takes a toll on you, doesn't it? The fear that he could turn on you, take your head and all your power. Come on, admit it. We're both old enough to own up to our fears."

Akira sighed and expressed, "My only fear…is the fear of losing my loved ones to people that think they can decide whether or not you will suffer horribly."

"Is that so?"

"Unlike you, power is meaningless to me. Even a victory has no value if not shared with those that matter. What do you want out of the Game?"

"The same I got getting into the Game…which is power. All else, be damned."

"Then everything and everyone else around you must be a game, not just the Game."

"What's the point in being an immortal…if one denies themselves the simplest of pleasures that come with a sense of hedonism?"

"Hedonism, debauchery, thrills, each nothing more than the defects of a depraved way to live to the extreme. Have you even read up on the life of Dorian Gray?"

"We don't all have personal portraits that reflect our worst character traits. We can't see into our souls and tell if they're stained by our sins."

"I've seen mine, Aceline…and I've seen the hearts of those around me in order to see their souls. I've even bared it out for Shinji to see, I keep nothing held back. There is shame, despair, fear, forgiveness, anger, frustration…loneliness…vengeance…envy…deceit…even avarice to a degree. I've lived a long time, watched friends and family come and go. Ironically, I view all us immortals as ronin, samurai without masters. Bound by a greater power to live forever…even if there is no reason to live."

"Heh. Yeah, you could be right about that. We could be samurai without masters. Or…we could be being tested by the universe itself to see if we're meant for something greater than life. Princes and princesses, kings and queens, emperors and empresses… Maybe we're the pillagers of the universe, meant to take whatever we want from life and leave the bits we don't want for the rest of the lowly mortals we have to share the world we live in with."

"Yes, that's one way of putting it…but it's not the only way to put it."

Akira then got up and walked towards the temple doors.

"Aw, do I bore you?" Aceline asked her.

"Unlike you, I have a husband and grandchild waiting for me at home," Akira told her. "If you stay here, The Demoness won't be able to kill you, but you can't beat her. I doubt I could myself. Think about who your next opponent will be."

As she left, Akira wondered how Shinji was doing in her absence. It was hoped by her that he was doing alright and that he wasn't being hassled by anyone, particularly his negligent and estranged parents or The Demoness. She had felt the minor presence of a Quickening earlier, but was relieved that it wasn't anyone she knew that fell from their grace of life. But now this left only nineteen immortals left in the Game…with the stakes raised higher.

-x-

If there was a reason to having him in the room to be interrogated allover again, Shinji found it was going to be very dull and a waste of his time that could've been used to acquire the secret of this safety net for immortals from Aceline. As far as he knew, this had better not been because he cut two of the suits that tried to disarm him of his tanto earlier when they brought him back to NERV.

The door in front of him opened and Captain Katsuragi came in, carrying the tube case he used to carry his jian.

"Do you care to explain what this is?" She asked him, setting the case down on the table in front of the boy. "It was found on your…bike."

"Why don't you tell me what you think it is," he responded, looking at her.

Misato then opened the case and removed the contents, revealing his sword to them.

"Now, what were you doing with a thing like this on you out there?" She asked him.

"A guy's got to have a hobby," he told her, "and more protection against danger when out there."

"You call carrying a sword a hobby? It's not legal for you to have one of these in your possession. Where could you get one of these?"

"Why does it matter where I got this sword? It's my sword, and I don't use it unless I absolutely have to. What, is there something wrong with a little guy carrying big knives with him when he wants to be by himself somewhere?"

"If this were a Japanese sword, yes. Unfortunately, this is not a katana, so you're skirting the law…and whoever helped you get it. I don't get you, Shinji. You've been a conundrum ever since you arrived here. You're smaller than your average teenager, you carry a tanto, you think your father is hiding something from you that is far from the truth, you walk out of school yesterday and disappear for hours. What if there was an Angel attack and you weren't there?"

"Why else do you think I suspect that man of hiding the truth? The guy's a megalomaniac with a god complex and is an uncaring, unreasonable sociopath. I don't trust him to do something that's not going to piss people off or come back to bite him in his ass because he thought he could get away with it."

"You really hate your father, don't you?"

"Hate him, pity him, look down upon him, condemn him. What do you think of him?"

"I think you're both alike."

Shinji's hands balled into fists on the table.

"I am nothing like that man," he uttered in response to her choice of words. "Don't compare me to the likes of him."

"I mean, you both have some moody behavior," she defended.

"I am nothing like that man," he repeated. "Don't compare me to the likes of him."

"Well, you both talk a little similar, you give odd looks, you seem to have trust and forgiveness issues that may stem from…"

Crash! Shinji, enraged by her continuance at trying to compare the two, lifted the table and threw it aside, against the wall on his right in front of her, standing up on the chair he'd been sitting in.

"I am nothing like that man!" He shouted at her. "Don't compare me to the likes of him or his wife!"

Misato had backed away from him when he threw the table (which had been bolted to the floor), surprised by his ability to rip the table off the floor and threw it aside. There was no way that he should've been able to do that at all, even if he was a ten-year-old and not fourteen. Yet, he did so, and it frightened her.

"Are you anything like your father, Ms. Katsuragi?" He asked her, enraged by her harassing him. "Is Ms. Akagi anything like her mother? You wanna compare me to a jerk that decides to echo a choice his own father made when he was little, let me tell you, that's a bullshit move on your part. I'll say this only once to you. Don't mess with me on such nonsense. And don't think I won't inform Akira about this conversation. Are we done here now?"

Shinji then hopped off the chair and approached the discarded table, shoving it aside and picking up his tube case for his sword and his sword, putting the case on his back. He just lost his temper and threw a table out of his way. Now, he just wanted to go home and forget about NERV.

"Uh, wait a minute!" Misato gasped as he opened the door and left out. "You haven't been debriefed!"

"Screw your debriefings," he retorted. "Unless it's an Angel, we got nothing more to discuss."

Suddenly, the alarms went off, indicating that an Angel had been detected.

"Okay, now we have something worth discussing about at a later time," Shinji told her.

-x-

This was completely unexpected for NERV. An Angel had arrived that was not anticipated by the higher-ups.

"Is this the Sixth Angel?" Fuyutsuki asked Gendo, seeing the Angel was much larger than an Eva through the holographic displays, was slightly humanoid and grotesquely malformed.

"Not the Angel we were originally expecting," he responded, indicating that this Angel wasn't supposed to show up until much later.

Even Yui was surprised by this turn of events; the sight of a creature of this magnitude seemed beyond the ability of even one Eva to contend with if they had no idea what it was capable of.

"Uh, how soon can we launch Unit-01?" She asked Fuyutsuki.

"As soon as we receive confirmation that Shinji is in it," he answered her.

The worst thing of it was that they couldn't even send Rei out in Unit-01, even if they wanted to, because the Eva wouldn't sync with anyone except Shinji.

-x-

"…Oh, shit," Akira went, seeing the massive Angel as she drove down the road to her apartment building.

She didn't bother with parking the Prius, she just jumped out of it and ran into the elevator and pressed the button for her floor. If her husband was still there, she had to get him away from harm.

Rumble! She felt the ground tremble, which suggested that this Angel was one the destructive side.

The elevator made it to her floor and she ran out to her door, seeing the Angel had blown a huge hole somewhere in the inner city limits, and several people were screaming.

"Takuya!" She shouted, opening the door and running inside. "Takuya! Answer me!"

"Akira?" Her husband came from out of the bathroom in the hallway, damp and dressed in his green yukata. "What's going on? And where's Shinji?"

"He hasn't come back yet?" She responded, and then realized that he had to be at NERV. "Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no."

Crash! The building shook and then Akira ran to the front of the apartment to look at the Angel, seeing it disappear in between and below the buildings; it was going underground.

 _A direct approach?_ She thought, recalling the many times that people tried to cause the greatest amount of harm by taking the most extreme actions. _That thing's heading for Shinji!_

-x-

He wasn't going to waste his time changing into his plugsuit…and he wasn't going to leave his sword or his tanto out of his sight just because of some bull between himself and NERV. So Shinji just jumped into the Entry and got inserted into Unit-01.

"We won't have time to send you to the city," said Misato to him through the intercom, informing him of this Angel's direct approach, "so we're sending in front of HQ. You should have less than three minutes to intercept the target."

As the LCL filled the plug and his lungs, Shinji began syncing with the soulless Eva that was just an extension of his own will, free of other influences. The Eva was then moved to the catapult system and sent up to the surface above the base, surrounded by several large firearms that left the immortal boy feeling very uncomfortable.

"Are these even necessary?" He questioned.

"This is where I have to tell you to suck in your discomfort and snipe the target," Misato told him.

Looking down at a Pellet Rifle, Shinji just sighed as he recalled the first time he picked up a gun…and how awful it felt when he pulled the trigger.

"And this is where I tell you and everyone else that disagrees with me to go blow yourselves," he responded back, taking out his Prog. Knife over the firearms. "I'm never going to pick up a gun again, no matter who the enemy is."

He then switched off the intercom.

-x-

 _Immortality doesn't negate pain_

His kidnapper was a guy that got his jollies harming children before he killed them, and the worst part of it was that this man was over three-hundred-forty years old, and indulged in this sick pleasure of his for the last one-hundred-thirty years. This frightened Shinji even more when he found out the guy was immortal like himself, and threatened to make him suffer greatly before taking his head. It had been bad enough that knowing he wouldn't grow up or grow old because of this power he had in him was preserving his life, but he didn't want to suffer from such cruelty that was no different from how he died. He was still a foundling, had been a foundling for less than four months, and was still learning the ways of the sword from Akira and of where holy ground could be found to obtain safety from your adversaries.

But Akira wasn't here to protect him from this immortal, and his tanto had been taken from him by the immortal child molester.

"Are you ready to know a different kind of pain, boy?" The man asked him, slowly approaching him from across the other side of the large room as he laid there, tied up and gagged. "Whatever caused your First Death probably pales in comparison to what shall befall you now. I'll just kill you…until you beg for your suffering to stop."

He couldn't move, couldn't get away, couldn't defend himself from anyone. He was just…going to suffer at the hands of another immortal that could do whatever he wanted to him.

 _Would things have been better for me had I just died?_ He wondered as he shut his eyes.

CRASH! The glass windows above them shattered as someone smashed into the room.

A woman, dressed in a black, form-fitting suit, landed on the floor in between them, and unsheathed a sword on her back. She had long, ebony hair tied into a ponytail, a dark blue, bodice of some sort that wrapped around her waist just under her bosom, and her face was as clear as daylight to Shinji, who recognized her. It was Akira, whose shoulder-length hair was actually tied up so deceptively that her grandson was fooled into believing that it was much shorter. And the woman was clearly enraged about what was going on here as she looked at the immortal man.

"Takemaru," she uttered, glaring at him like he had crossed a terrible line that couldn't be forgiven. "Do you have any idea of what you have committed against my family?"

"Your family?" The man, Takemaru, responded, and then looked at Shinji. "That boy? That immortal boy? He's related to you? And let me guess, you spent the better part of the three days he and other children went missing looking for him, never realizing that an immortal with a taste for carnage against children had committed the act?"

Akira slowly backed away from Takemaru and nearer to Shinji, taking out a small blade in her right hand and cutting his bonds off, freeing him.

"You have violated one of the lesser Rules. A foundling is always entitled a grace period in which they receive training and protection from an older immortal willing to provide them with such needs. Not only have you violated that rule, you have disrespected my family by going after one of my descendants. I will have your head for this."

As Shinji removed the gag from his mouth, he watched as Akira swung her sword at the man, who dodged her swings and got near a crack in a wall behind him and pulled out a sword of his own, a blood-encrusted ninjaken, which he used to clash with the woman's katana. He had never seen his grandmother (or any woman, for that matter) fight with a sword so gracefully and violently. In his mind, she was something else. An angel, a ghost or something else altogether not human.

Clash! Their swords clashed again and Akira spat in Takemaru's face.

"Why do you care so much about the boy?" He asked her. "Don't you know who his parents are? Who his father is?"

"Who his father is is irrelevant to me," she responded to him. "I was looking for any descendants of mine that were fortunate enough to survive Second Impact, and I was fortunate enough to find him, even if his father is just some depraved has-been."

"I bet it stings at your ancient heart, to know that your precious legacy of descendants have been reduced to a pair of disgraces. You were better off adopting orphans of war. At least they don't disgrace the blood that flows in your veins."

"Aaurgh!" Akira grunted and brushed him back.

Shinji attempted to crawl away, but stumbled upon something that he hadn't seen earlier. It was the small revolver that Takeru must've tossed aside after shooting at his left leg to test his recently-acquired immortality, just to see if he could recover from a gunshot wound. He looked at Akira and him still fighting, and then picked up the gun, checking its remaining bullets, finding five unspent shells waiting to be used.

"Urgh!" Akira grunted, grabbed at her waist by Takemaru and thrown aside by him, crashing into some rusted, empty barrel drums. "If it weren't for the fact that your sword is covered in dried blood, I'd say you were slacking off in your swordsmanship."

"When you enjoy killing children after you're done with them, you have many dummies to practice cutting up," he told her.

"You…are…truly…out of your mind."

"When you have nothing left in your life, all save your life, you have nothing left to lose. And I'm immortal, so what's a few child deaths to one such as I?"

Akira was about to move again when she noticed that some of the other barrels actually had some children bound and gagged in them; if she moved, Takemaru's sword could hit and kill them.

"Accept defeat," he told her, raising his sword up to claim her head. "Kids suck."

BANG! His head tilted to the right as a streak of blood came out of it, and he looked to his left, right at Shinji, holding his smoking revolver.

"You just shot me in the head, boy," he went, actually chuckling at his attempt on his life. "You're a slow learner, aren't you? You can't kill me with guns."

Takemaru then began to approach Shinji, who shuddered and raised the gun up to shoot at him again, landing a bullet in his chest…and another in his waist, but the man just kept walking towards him.

 _Please, just die already!_ Shinji's mind screamed in great fear, counting his two bullets left.

Akira saw the panic on Shinji's face and rushed over and knocked Takemaru to the ground, punching him in his face and using her sword to cut his arm off so that he couldn't use his ninjaken.

"You shot my grandson!" She yelled at him. "Let's see how you like it when you get pummeled before you die!"

"Eh-heh-heh!" Takemaru just laughed at her. "Is that all you got?"

SLAM! He somehow got up and headbutted her in the jaw, sending her flying to the ground.

Shinji saw his tanto slip out of the guy's back pocket and onto the ground…and something just snapped in him. He didn't see anything except for the gun, the barrels full of other boys that were being tortured by Takemaru, his severed, sword-wielding arm, Akira, his tanto being unsheathed…and cutting off Takemaru's head when he wasn't looking at him dashing towards him.

Akira had never seen Shinji move that fast before since she and Takuya met him at the hospital and took him in. Never before had she anticipated his speed when she started teaching him all she knew in the way of the sword, and never before did she expect his first kill of another immortal to be anything of this sort.

"Shinji?" She called his name as Takemaru's head fell and rolled away from them.

Then, barely ten seconds after the decapitation, the fallen man's body began to glow and levitate, taking Shinji up with it, four feet in the air.

"Aaaahh!" He screamed, feeling electrical discharges surging through his body and striking at the floor and walls. "Aaaaahh!"

This was his first Quickening received from another immortal, and all that came with it. The fallen's knowledge, memories, secrets, strengths, all flowing into the new immortal to be used for their benefit. And just like with any other immortal, it was always painful to experience. But for Shinji, it was unlike anything he had ever experienced before he was killed by his maternal aunt; to him, it was like every last inch of him was set ablaze, his blood boiling up and his skin ready to peel away.

Then, as quickly as it came, it ended, and he fell to the ground, panting heavily from the experience as it left him feeling drained of energy.

"Shinji?" Akira called out to him again, hearing him whimpering, and then seeing him look at her, the look of fear still present on his face.

The gun, still holding two bullets left, was still in his left hand, and he raised it at her head.

"Shinji," she raised her hands in front of him. "Put down the gun."

"I can't," he responded, his voice expressing his pain, his fear…and his anger.

 _He's so terrified,_ she realized, slowly approaching. "Shinji…"

"She killed me," he cut her off. "She killed me. That man was going to kill me. What's to keep you from killing me?!"

He was referring to his maternal aunt, and then Takemaru…and herself out of fear of being killed allover again. This time, only permanent if he lost his head. And he was so consumed with fear that he feared even her right now, not wanting to die.

"I don't kill children, Shinji," she answered him; there wasn't a day spent of her immortal lifespan where any number of her fallen victims were immortals that died as children. "And I won't kill you. Even if it wasn't part of the Rules, I wouldn't cross that line. Not with you, not with anyone."

She was within a feet away from him, seeing his trigger finger slowly pulling at the trigger. There wasn't any fear in her that he was going to panic and shoot her.

"If you want to shoot me, go right ahead," she had to let him know. "I won't hold it against you."

Truth be told, a part of him wanted to just pull the trigger and keep her away from him because of what he just went through. He knew because of her that there were only two types of immortals in this world, representing light and darkness, that it was a constant struggle between those that did good and those that committed themselves to making others suffer for their own amusement after becoming cynical from living so long, and that his first kill was a cynical immortal that enjoyed harming children. The guy's memories and secrets were like a nightmare he was trying to wake up from, but couldn't. A warm feeling enveloped him just then, and he realized that Akira was holding him in an embrace; while wrapped in thought, the immortal matriarch of the Rokubungi family had got around her grandson and just held onto him, not even trying to remove the gun or tanto from his hands.

"I'm sorry you had to go through all this, Shinji," he heard her apologize to him.

He let go of the gun and his tanto and sobbed.

It would be another five minutes before he stopped…and another ten minutes before they left the warehouse to avoid the police. The media would spin this as just another unsolved homicide involving another decapitation, with the child survivors saying to the police that a mysterious woman came and saved them and took one of them home. Only Shinji and Akira would know what really happened, that it wasn't Akira that killed the immortal with a taste for pedophilia, that it was Shinji, who would have to wait until his next Quickening and spend several days talking with Akira to get over the horrid experience and move on.

-x-

 _Akira took the gun and sword,_ he continued to think back to that night he got his first Quickening, _and burned them to ensure that there was no trace of anything that could lead back to me._

Up on the ceiling of the Geo-Front, the Angel began to descend, looking like some sort of mummy, unwrapping its bandages and revealing nothing but a malformed rib cage system protecting an oversized, red sphere and enclosed on the sides by two large arms.

"Something tells me that this Angel isn't like the previous three," Shinji expressed.

When the Angel landed on the ground, two of its unfurled, bandage-like wrappings wrapped around its arms…and formed two large blades, which it then used to assume a position that was familiar to Shinji…and those that do so.

-x-

"…Is that a…sword stance?" Misato questioned, seeing the Angel perform a sword stance in front of Unit-01.

On the holographic monitors, watching the scene take place, the entire Central Dogma personnel saw how the Angel used the left blade to point at the Eva…and then make a gesture with said blade that reminded most of them of the death threat gesture.

"Uh, guys," went Hyuga to everyone, "I think this Angel just singled the Third Child out."

"I think you're right," responded Maya to him.

To be continued…

A/N: Surely, one of you can guess which Angel this is. Here's a hint: It's not Gaghiel, Israfel or Sahaquiel in that order. There is more interference to be had in the next chapter.


	9. One, Two, Three

Creation began on 01-29-17

Creation ended on 02-10-17

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Immortal Ikari: One, Two, Three

Shinji couldn't believe his eyes when he saw how this Angel just seemed to single him out, like it was he that it was coming for this whole time. But he had no time to waste, raising the Prog. Knife up defensively, waiting for the first move to be made.

"When you move, I move," he uttered.

The Angel made the first move, charging towards the Eva on its stubby legs, surprising Shinji with its maneuverability, raising its blade arms up high.

"Oh, shit!" He gasped, and jumped out of the way, just in time to avoid the sword strike, which destroyed the cache of firearms like they weren't even there. _Nothing I feel I should worry about._

The Angel turned and saw the Eva brandished the Prog. Knife defensively before charging at it a second time.

Clash! The three blades met, and the Eva was pushed backwards towards the artificial lake's edge.

"Whoa!" Shinji gasped again. "What power!"

The Angel's skull-like head leaned in towards the Eva's, as if to intimidate the pilot inside further. Unfortunately for it, the Eva's pilot didn't feel the slightest bit of intimidation. Not even its flaring eyes gave no indication of frightening the boy.

Kick! The Eva used used its left leg and hit the lower section of the rib cage-like housing of the Angel's core, causing a crack to form on one of the ribs, forcing the Angel to back away.

-x-

"…This is insane, Akira," said Takuya to his wife as they drove to the Geo-Front. "You really think Shinji can handle a creature of that magnitude?"

"It's not the Angel that worries me as much as Shinji's parents do," Akira responded; those two scientists were getting way too close to finding out that their estranged son was immortal and involved in a war between light and darkness where the stakes were high. "I know Shinji's going to be the victor of this contest. I just don't feel that those NERV people will just let him walk away without an explanation for what he goes through each time."

"It's a wonder his parents haven't tried to get him back yet."

"Like that will ever happen."

Both knew that it was definitely unlikely that Shinji would want to go back to his parents, mortal or immortal. First, the mother that left him as a toddler, then the father that abandoned him to loneliness and suffering…and then the maternal aunt that killed him, unleashing his immortality and driving him further into misery that only those that understood him and engaged him in deep conversations could break him out of. It seemed that the people of this day and age were truly, vastly different from those of the thousands of generations long gone, where understanding and tolerance or even acceptance of immortals so long as they didn't stay in one place for far too long. Now, they just tried to poke and prod at what were often better left alone, regardless of the reason or reasons involved.

"Can I ask you something personal, Akira?" Takuya asked her.

"Yeah, go ahead," she answered him.

"Shinji… You want him to win the Game, don't you?"

Akira didn't answer him. Instead, she just thought back to Shinji's first Quickening after beheading Takemaru, and how much it affected him to be part of the Game where everyone was trying to make it to the end, to be the last one standing, either adhering to a strict code of morality…or performing vile acts of depravity as a way of passing the nigh-endless time they had until their time to die came a second time. In many respects, her grandson was still a child, locked in time, unable to move forward or backwards because of what happened to him. If there weren't any other obstacles like the Game, she wouldn't have minded his predicament, willing to put up with him until Hell literally froze over. And…as much as she didn't wish to face Shinji on the literal battlefield…she did want him to win the Game, to be the recipient of the mysterious Prize, to be the true master of his own life and not some piece on a chessboard to be moved by some hand.

"If there's a way out of the Game for those that didn't want to die just yet," she uttered to her husband, "I'd let Shinji take the Prize, whatever it is. But he'd have to face The Demoness in order to get it, and she's beyond the rest of us. The deadliest of the immortals, down to a 'T'."

"How do you defeat a person like that? How do you defeat someone who seems to be beyond humanity and embraces savagery?"

"If there's a way, it's what I learned during my early years after I discovered my immortality: Courage, determination, faith in one's abilities…and good steel. In the end, there can be only one."

Ring! Their phones started ringing.

"I got it," said Takuya to her, answering his phone. "Yes?"

With the phone on speaker, the voice on the other end revealed themselves to be Ms. Katsuragi, who responded, "Are either you or your wife at home or in a shelter?"

"No, we're on our way to the Geo-Front. We have our concerns about Shinji. Now that I mention it, none of you better have harmed him! I'll sue your ass off!"

Akira just smiled at the would-be threat her husband made.

"Uh, nothing we've done has actually caused him harm," Misato responded. "The reason I'm calling is… I think this new Angel has it in for Shinji."

"Has it in for Shinji?" Akira questioned. "What do you mean by that? Since when do these Angels, as you like to call them, have it in for select individuals instead of a whole race?"

"We think it may have something to do with the previous Angels that were defeated?"

"You mean killed," Takuya corrected her. "You don't really use 'defeat' unless the enemy is still alive in a way. You didn't have Shinji defeat the previous Angels, you had him kill them."

"Right. Killed. Sorry."

"Anyway, we'll be there shortly. We can discuss this further after we get there." Akira told her.

Takuya hung the phone up and sighed at how much things seemed to change since they got here.

"An Angel singling Shinji out?" He questioned. "Is such an act possible?"

"In the shadow world of the immortals, anything is possible," she answered. "I've seen immortals with the power to cast illusions, manipulate the elements and perform remarkable feats of alchemic reactions that actually give those _Avatar_ and _Fullmetal Alchemist_ franchises justice, sing songs that leave you haunted by their hidden meanings, even possess the gift of wingless flight or telekinesis. Sometimes, the older an immortal is, the greater their abilities become over time."

-x-

The Prog. Knife just wasn't meant to endure repeated hits, seeing as it cracked and fell to pieces, becoming no different from trash. This left Shinji with no other alternative but to use his other ability that was acquired from the Angels.

 _It's not like NERV's going to be able to figure out how I can do this, anyway,_ he thought, and willed the Eva's arms to glow and generate energy blades. _This Angel has got to be the strongest out of them._

With his energy blades shaped like katanas, the Eva was prepared to face off against the Angel again.

The Angel, only sporting minor cuts from the Prog. Knife and few nicks to its head, charged towards the Eva again, and clashed blades. It recognized the signature ability of one of its siblings and expressed its contempt at an abomination operated by a mediocre organism that was the enemy in the best fashion: Its skull-like face shape-shifted to express rage, with sharp features on the hollow eyes and mouth.

"This thing really has it in for me," Shinji told himself, using the Eva's left arm to swing at the Angel's legs, managing to cut off the right one.

"Grraurgh!" The Angel growled at him; he was unsure if it was in pain or just annoyance. "I see you, little boy…and you can't hide what you truly are."

-x-

"Son of a bitch," went Misato, surprised by this Angel's unexpected ability.

"Tell me this thing didn't just talk," added Ritsuko, trying to see a scientific reasoning for this creature's speech. "It defies logic."

Even though it seemed impossible, it didn't deter Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki's thoughts on the matter of what the Angel had said.

 _It said it saw the boy,_ he thought; the Angel wasn't addressing the human race, just the person within the Eva.

"You serve those that will lead to your downfall," the Angel continued, "you disrespect my fallen brethren…and exploit their gifts for your own purposes. Your so-called innocent face hides your malevolent impulses. Those like you have the capacity to do anything, yet you live like these…disgraces of Lilith."

"Did that thing just call us disgraces?" Shigeru questioned.

"Who's Lilith?" Hyuga added.

"What is it talking about, Shinji's face hides malevolence?" Maya added.

Nobody in Central Dogma was sure what was going on, anymore. The Angel's ability to speak was casting serious doubts about what was happening right now in everyone's mind.

Everyone except Gendo, that is. He didn't feel concerned about any degree of trouble from this Angel, that it would be taken care of.

"Can we switch back on the Third Child's intercom, Maya?" Ritsuko asked her protégé, who was typing away on her console.

"Intercom coming back online in three…two…now," Maya announced, and the holographic monitors displayed the interior of Shinji's Entry Plug.

"It's actually hard to live when there are people out there that want a piece of you," they heard Shinji say to the Angel, baring his teeth; the high degree of synchronization must've been affecting him mildly to cause him some discomfort.

"Of the rare few, these Lilim covet you?" The Angel asked him.

"Lilim? What are Lilim?"

"All of you. You call yourselves humans…but you're hardly a race of intelligent organisms."

"People are Lilim. Well, like dearest of relatives tell me, knowledge is among the greatest of powers anyone can possess."

Then, the Eva forced the Angel back, which then levitated as it regenerated its missing leg.

"You're a fascinating organism, which is why I won't bother with the Lilim that control you until after you've been neutralized," the Angel revealed. "Or any other Lilim, for that matter. Isn't that what you refer to as…having an honor code?"

"Yeah," Shinji answered it. "Not many people have a code of honor these days…except for those that follow the way of the samurai. But I'm a ronin, Angel, a samurai without a master. These…Lilim that you say control me…don't control me. Some of them hide the truth with their lies to the point where I'm forced to find the truth on my own. Can't trust them to simply own up to their faults and tell me what this is truly about."

"He…he doesn't know he's being monitored, does he?" Misato asked Maya.

"No, our side of the intercom's muted on his side," she explained. "It's just us watching him engage in conversation with an Angel that he probably didn't know could talk until it did."

Basically, both sides of the system were transmitting to each other, but neither could receive because one side was not cooperating.

"Yet, you help them," the Angel continued, raising its blade arms and clashing with the Eva's energy blades again. "Why help them? Are you protecting the vile scum?"

"I'm not protecting everyone," Shinji told it. "There will always be some people that are worth protecting, but those of NERV are a questionable bunch. There are some people there that deserve protection…and others that don't deserve anything."

"Why, that little…" Ritsuko spoke up, but was cut off by Shinji.

"But even if I had to protect all of NERV, my reasons are my own," he continued. "I just want the truth. The real truth. And if the ones that know it, namely a bastard I've come to despise for personal reasons, refuse to come clean with it, then there's no point in waiting for them to confess. Which, by any case, I've already given up on waiting for them to own up to their faults. Unlike some children, I do not have the total sum of the patience of Job."

The Eva then knocked the blades away and quickly impaled the Angel in its sides, feeling like it was jamming its energy blades into a thick wad of dough.

"I knew you'd try that," the Angel responded, and managed to impale the Eva in the waist, causing blood to spurt out of the back of the purple behemoth.

"I guess getting assaulted by one of my cruelest of relatives to the back of my head helps a little because I did not feel that," Shinji reacted calmly. "But I'm sure you'll feel this!"

Shinji made the Eva use the energy blade in its left arm to create a widespread variation of itself, severing the Angel from its lower half.

"Aaaurgh! Aaaaurgh!" The Angel groaned, a grayish fluid spraying from its severed halves as it levitated to keep from falling.

"This has to explain it," went Fuyutsuki.

"Explain what?" Gendo questioned.

"Why he had that sword with him when Section Two brought him in. His victory over the previous Angels had to be due to knowing how to use a sword. This isn't something you just pick up from watching television or reading comic books."

Then Gendo had to consider this, wondering just where the Third Child learned of how to use a sword. Or at least who taught him of such an old art that not many people practice, anymore. This even brought into question just who Akira Rokubungi really was, since she gave the boy the tanto.

-x-

"…My God," went Takuya gasped, seeing Unit-01 just cut up the creature that it was facing. "What power Shinji has right now."

"Yeah," Akira agreed with him as they drove on the road one-hundred feet away the battle scene, hoping that their grandson was doing alright against this Angel.

"He's going to be fine," her husband assured her. "He learned from the best."

Suddenly, they saw the Eva conjure up much larger energy blades, reminiscent of a move Shinji had tried to practice after Akira dared him to do in order to see how strong he had gotten due to his Angel-derived Quickenings, and slashed at the Angel's core and rib cage-like casing, cutting the red sphere in half and sending the enemy falling.

"I'm not the only one coming for you, boy," the Angel expressed, trying to get up, but failed. "Even the mightiest of us was no match for one that seeks the path to a life made whole once more."

With the demise of the Angel's core came the fourth Quickening provided by it to Shinji. Strands or waves of electrical energy began to encircle the Eva as the Angel's remains levitated from off the ground, taking it three feet into the air.

 _Zeruel, huh?_ Akira thought, receiving some information on the Angel's identity from the energy unleashed. _Shinji claimed the power of one of God's strongest messengers._

-x-

"Aaah!" Shinji screamed as the Quickening surged through him inside the plug.

Unfortunately, the whole of Central Dogma could see this through the internal cameras, wondering if this was what he went through each time he defeated an Angel.

"I don't believe this," said Misato, watching as the Quickening ended as quickly as it started for Shinji.

"If this was what happened to him each time, he never told us," added Ritsuko.

"Nobody affiliated with NERV. This only means he could've confided in someone else, like his guardians or those classmates of his."

The Eva fell to its knees as Shinji panted, as if whatever he just experienced was more draining for him than the actual battle.

"Uh, how are his vitals?" Ritsuko asked Hyuga.

"Vitals are unaffected," he answered. "But if he was electrocuted, there should be some sort of change. Altered brain chemistry, slowed respiratory function, something."

"God, have mercy," went Maya, checking Shinji's synchronization ration with the Eva. "His synchronization is almost…nine-hundred percent now."

"Such…power," they all heard Shinji say, and saw his expression change from one of relief to one of awareness. "Two more are coming down here."

The alarms went off again and Shigeru announced, "Two more blue patterns, approaching the city!"

"Two more Angels?" Misato questioned. _What the Hell's going on here?_

On the monitors, the two Angels appeared in the ocean, heading for Japan. One looked like a larger, lesser variation of the Third Angel, while the other looked like some of large, fish-like creature of a bone coloring.

"Three Angels in one day?" Hyuga questioned. "Somebody up there doesn't like us."

-x-

He considered himself lucky to still have the umbilical cable attached to the Eva's back, otherwise a limited power supply was going to hinder him against the two arriving Angels. At first, Shinji considered turning back on the intercom to communicate with Central Dogma to inform them of the two incoming Angels, but then decided against it; as much as he could've told them, there was a chance that they already knew, so he'd just be wasting his time and theirs. He suspected that if this Angel was the strongest of the Angels, and he took it out, he could take out the remaining Angels with ease, having been augmented with their power. There was even a chance that these upcoming Angels may help give him the edge he needed to face The Demoness and claim the Prize for himself if she and he were the last of the immortals. And more, he knew how many Angels were left to face now…and could count them off his fingers.

"Six left," he uttered to himself. "I do not want to keep doing this for the rest of my days, however long I may have. I was meant for much more than war and death."

He looked down at sword and tanto, his tools of the trade in this shadow life of his. Even when this was all over, he was not going to cast aside such possessions. He respected the need of the sword, the quality of how it could be used, depending upon the intent of the wielder, to either destroy or protect, to preserve life or end it, and how, despite the generations of evolution in swords and swordsmanship, the blade represented one's power, their strength, their courage to face adversity without backing down, their authority, their sense of what is worth their protection and the metaphorical, penetrating power of their intellect and perseverance. And he had to own up to Akira teaching him all these lessons and experiences that, like martial arts, had applications in everyday life.

 _They're five minutes away from here,_ he thought, referring to the two Angels that he could now feel were getting closer to where he was, making no effort to cause harm to the rest of the world; he guessed they had it in for him, as well.

-x-

Le Femme Aceline found it irritating to hold out within a petty temple that served as her safe place for the time being, wanting to leave it and go after some immortals and claim their heads for herself. This was the Game and the power of the Gathering was still in effect, forcing immortals to seek each other out to fight to the death. While some of them were strong enough to persist in facing each other for as long as possible, they couldn't ignore this drive forever. Sooner or later, they would feel great agony that would not leave them unless they beheaded their enemies, and Aceline was unwilling to suffer for anyone, for any reason. She wanted to win the Game and claim the Prize, to have absolute power and knowledge over all.

"This is bullshit," she uttered, and suddenly felt the temple shake from a small tremor. "Hey, all I said was 'bullshit'! It's not against any deities to say it!"

Despite her immortality, she believed in the existence of deities, of multiple gods from different places. Just because she didn't pray or worship any of them, she didn't seek to disrespect them with her use of vulgar languages. She knew what she could say on holy ground and what not to say.

She stepped outside, but stopped from walking down the steps at the sight of a giant, flying, fish-like creature and a giant, hulking humanoid that moved around the hillside.

Gulp. Aceline felt the subtle drop in her body temperature and the blood leaving her face.

"Okay," she uttered again. "Okay. If staying in the temple is what will keep me safe, then I shan't abandon this refuge."

She ran back inside the temple and sat against one of the beams like earlier.

-x-

"…Is that a flying blob?" Shigeru questioned, seeing the next large Angel enter the Geo-Front through the hole the previous Angel made.

"Looks more like a manta ray," went Hyuga. "That other Angel, however, has a slight resemblance to the Third Angel."

The other Angel that floated down into the Geo-Front seemed like a streamlined version of the first Angel to attack after fifteen years, only without the areas of bone and with a dark, bluish scheme, with two cores visible on its front.

Unit-01 brought its arms together and the energy blade in its grip became larger and more like a surgical machete than a katana.

"Okay, I'm staying away from this kid," Hyuga expressed, fearful of actually crossing Shinji. "He's dangerous right now."

"But which Angel will he face first?" Maya wondered, assuming that these Angels just followed a one-on-one tactic instead of ganging up on the Eva.

"Even money's on the fish," one of the lesser workers dared to say. "Angel sushi."

"Fish before twins," they heard Shinji say; he was referring to the larger Angel that had to be the size of an aircraft carrier, much larger than a submarine or Evangelion. "I'll leave to rot on the ugly pyramid that's an embarrassment to the ones in Egypt."

Now Gendo found himself wondering if the Third Child was going to be disrespecting every last bit of his agency every chance he got.

"Look at it this way," went Fuyutsuki, trying to see the bright side to this. "If he gets rid of these two, we'll be two less Angels to deal with."

But it didn't mean anything to Gendo if his son couldn't be controlled.

-x-

"…Akira," said Takuya looking at Shinji's NERV-issued card that they used to gain access to the base, "I've never noticed it before until now, but this card they gave Shinji… Doesn't the red remind you of something?"

As they walked down the hall to Central Dogma, the immortal woman turned to face him and responded, "What do you mean?"

"The color," he clarified, handing it to her so she could look at it. "The shade of red they used."

Akira took a closer look at the card and recognized the shade of red the makers used. She had seen the color enough times to be intimate with it.

"Yeah," she realized, unsure of whether to condemn NERV further because of this. "This shade of red…is the same as blood. What the Hell were they thinking…or do they even think at all?"

The building shook a little and they suspected that Shinji was engaged in something else.

"What's going on out there?" Takuya questioned, concerned about Shinji's safety.

"Nothing that's going to end with us having to mourn a loved one," his wife assured her; she just had a feeling that stemmed from her ancient and maternal instincts that told her that Shinji was bound to be fine. "I've had to bury more than my fair share of loved ones over the years."

"Just for the record, honey, if I die, you can do whatever with my remains, whether it's bury or cremation or something."

"Takuya, I'd be buggered if you or Shinji died before I do. The power of the Gathering enforces the reduction of the Game's time. I'm already feeling the urge to end the Game as fast as possible…and I haven't even fought Aceline or The Demoness yet, and the latter immortal will want to win the Game as soon as possible, as well."

"Aceline and The Demoness… Both of whom are mistresses of insanity. How can you be sure that Aceline will stay in the temple?"

"I have no guarantee that she'll stay. She could be gone already."

Once they made it to Central Dogma, they saw the holograms of Unit-01 having to rotate between trying to facing a massive creature that had a distinctive, aquatic aspect to it…and another creature that was just as big as the Eva.

"Where's backup when you need it?" Takuya asked, getting Misato's attention. "You know what I'm talking about."

"Unit-00 is still out of action," she explained, being blunt.

"If that wasn't the truth, I'd call it a very lame excuse, even for you," Akira told her.

"I could say the same for you…giving a sword to a minor."

"What are you talking about?" Takuya asked her.

"What can you tell us about a three-and-a-half-foot teenage boy with a tanto walking around a tube case carrying a jian in a fortress city and joyriding around the streets on a minibike?"

"What did Shinji say to you when you questioned him about it?" Akira asked; she wasn't going to deny anything right now.

"He didn't answer to anything asked. He resisted."

"Shinji has a right to keep silent about what is his business," said Takuya, defending his wife and grandson. "What gives you the right to question him about it, the right to violate his privacy?"

"It's illegal for children to carry swords," went Fuyutsuki, explaining the concern.

"Not unless one has a proper license or permit to carry a sword," responded Akira; she took precautions when she gave Shinji his sword and tanto. "And he does. He hasn't broken any laws…unless, of course, there are some people…who feel threatened by him when it's the other way around."

"Shinji's threatened by us?" Ritsuko questioned.

"Well, one of you did make a move on him," Takuya stated the obvious, looking across the large room at Rei Ayanami.

"Yeah, you tell 'em, Takuya!" They heard Shinji's voice.

"Thank you, Shinji. Huh?!"

Everyone was looking at Shinji on the holographic display, seeing that he not only switched back on his side of the intercom, but had cut the Eva-sized Angel in half.

"And for the record, people, I took lessons in the art of swordsmithing and sword maintenance."

"How much of everything was he listening to?" Misato questioned, feeling embarrassed that she didn't know he had switched back on his intercom.

"Heh," went Akira. "He's a ninja. He hears everything."

"Would you hurry up and deal with the other Angel?" Ritsuko demanded.

"The one I cut in two isn't done yet," Shinji countered her.

"What?" Fuyutsuki questioned, seeing the remains of the Eva-sized Angel suddenly get up and shifted into a pair of similarly-looking Angels, one silver and one gold.

"Oh, that's a load of bull right there!" Misato grunted.

"Divide and conquer, Ms. Katsuragi," Akira explained. "But can such a tactic work against someone like Shinji, who knows how to deal with two people larger than himself?"

"Why do I get the feeling you taught Shinji how to make full use of his height impediment?" Ritsuko asked the woman.

"Size isn't everything," went Takuya. "Akira taught Shinji everything she knows about how to fight."

The Eva then raised its sword up and aimed its energy blade at the twin Angels.

"Your redemption lies within a holy mountain," said Shinji. "May your sacred blessings count for something instead of nothing."

Then, the twin Angels made a move towards the Eva, acting synchronized in their movements. It was like a person and their shadow working in concert.

"Haa!" Shinji reacted, making the Eva swing its blade horizontally, aiming at the silver twin.

It cleaved the enemy, going right for the core, and cleaved the core of the gold twin as it cut through its body and was followed by a backhand kick, sending the upper halves flying backwards towards the fish Angel as the lower halves fell.

"You've gotta be kidding me," Ritsuko uttered, never anticipating the boy to make the Eva perform a feat of that magnitude.

The remains of the twin Angels levitated and the Eva was once more lifted off its feet and experienced a surge of electrical energy.

"Aaaahh!" Shinji groaned as the inside of plug filled with electrical energy.

BOOM! Several of the control consoles exploded, causing technicians to back away.

"Aah!" Maya gasped as her console fried, last recording the synchronization between Shinji and the Eva skyrocketing. "What in the world?!"

The remains and Eva fell back down, and Shinji was reeling in from the Quickening.

"Whoo!" He went, coughing a little. "It never gets old, but it gets numb."

"Why does this always happen with each victory?" Takuya asked, trying to pin the blame of the Quickenings on NERV and the Angels to protect Shinji and Akira from the fallout.

"If we knew, we'd have an answer," Ritsuko sighed in response.

The Eva got back up and faced the last Angel present.

"Would anyone be interested in sushi down there?" Shinji asked, cracking a small smile.

"Yeah, sure, Shinji," Akira and Takuya answered him; they knew he was just joking, but it never hurt to answer such a question.

-x-

"…What the Hell is going on here?" The Demoness questioned, feeling the traces of Quickening energy, but not from any of the immortals she met on the Taoist Building. "How is this boy getting stronger? Is it from these giant creatures that went inside that hole in the ground?"

She was on a skyscraper with the remains of another fallen immortal, having taken their head and their power for her own when she felt the other Quickenings occur. In all her millennia of living, she never felt power like this being transferred over to a lesser being; in her mind all other immortals were below herself, in both age and skill. It felt amazing, like millions of sacraments being received by the same person, all at once. And she knew that Shinji Ikari was benefiting from these Quickenings, and if he survived the Game to face her in the end, she knew it would be more than what expects from her final adversary. She wanted to feel the gratifying bliss of an ultimate final showdown.

"Shinji Ikari," she uttered, leaving the rooftop to find her next immortal. "Only one of us can have the power to change this world for our own reasons. If you get any stronger, you'll be like my equal…and I hate having equals."

-x-

The fish-like Angel didn't have much in the manner of armament against Unit-01. Rather than using energy beams or claws, this creature used what its body could do as a means to assault the Eva. What it could do was jump out of the artificial lake that was big enough for it to submerge itself in and slam onto the ground as it tried to take out the Eva.

This both surprised and impressed Shinji that this creature made use of its disadvantages to its advantage, finding a useful ability in its inabilities.

"Like a Magikarp that can only use Splash," he uttered to himself. "Except you're bigger than whales weigh as much as an aircraft carrier, but I will claim your head…and reap the benefits."

The Angel, having dragged itself back into the lake, jumped out of it into the air after taking aim at the Eva, trying to get it a fifth time.

SLAM! The Eva dodged again and watched the Angel hit the ground, shaking it immensely.

"Shinji, stop playing around with the Angel and dispose of it!" He heard Misato's voice over the intercom. "We're getting infrastructural instability here from every time the Angel slams onto the ground! We've already lost some of the lights in here!"

"Aw, shove it, lady!" He heard Takuya respond. "He needs to dodge this thing enough times to understand how to beat it! Haven't you ever heard of observational learning? Everyone does it!"

"Yeah, what Takuya said," Shinji uttered, defending his grandfather's explanation for his actions. "Observe your adversary enough times, you will get around them and ensnare victory instead of get a slap in the face with defeat."

"I cannot believe that this boy is talking to me like this," Misato grunted, irritated. "I can't believe that you two encourage him to be so defiant!"

"Hey, we don't encourage defiance," said Akira to her. "We just encourage his sense of deviation."

"If he can't follow orders, he puts us at risk more than the Angels do," went Ritsuko.

"Lady, you can't rely on an order or a set of rules at all times to help you against someone or something," Shinji expressed; he knew this to be true, since his third Quickening was only obtained from deviating from his original objectives, and he had to use sharp wires to behead the immortal that tried to kill him. "Sometimes, you have to make up your tactics as you go."

As the Angel began to turn and flail back towards the lake, Shinji made the Eva take the opportunity to grab the Angel by its long tail. The idea was to keep the Angel from going back into the lake for a moment in order to ascertain whether or not its need for water was actually a need. Also, he had to time his counterattack just right after letting the Angel back into the water.

"Grraaaaurgh! Rrrraurgh!" The Angel roared, unable to get any closer to the water. "Grrrrrrraaaurgh!"

Then, after confirming enough that this Angel truly needed to be in water, Shinji released the Angel and ran towards the NERV pyramid, getting into position.

"Okay, messenger fish," he uttered, seeing the last of its body sink into the lake, "come and get back to Heaven where these savages can't kill you."

From observational learning, Shinji found this Angel stayed in the water for less than thirty seconds, jumps out into the air and hovers for five seconds, then slams down on the ground in two seconds. So his best chance of success was during the five-second window when the Angel was in the air. This may require his most extreme method of dealing with the threat, providing that his Angel-derived Quickenings allowed him to do more than just use a variation of one the Angels' abilities.

"Ten…nine…eight…seven…" He counted backwards, knowing that the Angel would jump out of the lake soon, making the Eva put its hands together behind itself.

-x-

"…Is he doing what I think he's doing?" Hyuga questioned.

"Takuya, did you really have to get Shinji those comic books and DVDs?" Akira asked her husband.

"I loved the franchise," her husband responded.

On the screens, the Angel emerged from the lake and into the air, hovering and aiming towards Unit-01, determined to bury it for good.

"Two… ONE!" Shinji shouted, and the Eva thrust its arms outward towards the Angel, unleashing an energy blast from its palms that seemed to mirror the power that had been demonstrated by the Fifth Angel before it was defeated. "AAAAHH!"

The blast hit the Angel and consumed it in light, burning away its body as the blast escaped from out the hole above the Geo-Front. It didn't end until ten seconds passed and the Eva fell to its knees.

"…I…did…it…" They heard Shinji pant over the intercom.

Thud! The core, all that remained of the Angel, crashed onto the ground in front of the Eva, completely intact and glowing bright red.

"Oh, my… We need that core," went Ritsuko, really wanting to run tests on an Angel's core.

Shinji's face contorted into anger, and Unit-01 raised its right hand above the core.

"Shinji, no!" She ordered him. "Do not destroy that core! It could have invaluable information on the Angels! Think of the scientific value!"

"Gomen nasai, but I'm a young man ruled by his conscience and morality," they heard Shinji respond, making the Eva's hand glow in the shape of a small blade. "You could say that my faith in science of this sort is…virtually nonexistent. Plus, just because the Angel's been reduced to a core, that doesn't mean it's dead. The rules apply to any killer with a supernatural aspect to them. If you think they're dead, it's best to make sure that they're truly dead."

"Third Child, you are to refrain from destroying that core," went Gendo to him. "That's a direct order!"

"Don't you dare shatter it," Ritsuko enforced.

"All I heard was 'shatter it'," Shinji responded, and the Eva dropped its hand onto the core, shattering it and sending the fragments flying everywhere. "Oh, this Angel's dead now."

"Son of a…" Ritsuko groaned. "He has no respect for authority."

"Look on the bright side, he took out three of them in one day," Akira expressed, proud of Shinji's achievement. "That's a new record, including the three previous Angels he's beaten."

"You know, having a pair of scientists for parents, he could at least demonstrate some of their logic when it comes to scientific growth."

Akira looked at her and gave her a sneered expression.

"Actually, it's because of his parents that he doesn't have an appreciation for the type of science that you use here. He can respect the science that allows for reliable technology, such as the iPhone or even his bike, and medical aid for people with illnesses that can be treated and cured. He even respects the science that grants handicapped people the ability to stand on their own feet or use their own hands. But the science and technology used to create the Eva, a war machine that's your so-called last hope? He doesn't respect it as much."

"He's young, I don't expect him to have a full understanding of our situation with his way of perceiving situations, even if he views them differently from that of a scientist."

"Oh, he understands more than you know. I'm just saying that he doesn't have faith in it when and if something…or someone does something to cause it to do something that he's unwilling to do or agree with. You say that it exists to defend mankind from Angels, but what's to keep the people that send it out into conflict from sending it out onto the very people it was stated to defend against harm from monstrous foes? Nothing you say will change the fact that it was built by people with agendas, and the thing about agendas is that they change. Something you have that can harm countless innocents could eventually be your nuclear deterrent…because anyone with a conscience knows that keeps everyone in line by reminding them of the very thing that can become their doom if they choose to cross the line."

Somehow, Fuyutsuki, Misato and the primary Bridge Bunnies got the feeling that when Akira said this all, she was being specific and direct, meaning that Gendo was included one of the "people with agendas" that could decide what the Eva would or could be used for…and who it would or could be used against, regardless of intent…and those made to follow orders they don't agree with. They each turned to face Gendo, who was looking at Akira and Takuya with a negative expression; there was clearly no affection between the couple and the head of NERV like there was between the couple and the Third Child. There was only outrage and disapproval over actions committed on the part of the father…and to an equal and lesser extent, the mother; if there was dislike towards Gendo, then there was dislike towards Yui, as well.

"Aaaaurgh!" They heard Shinji groan as the Eva experienced another surge of electrical energy. "So numbing… So…numbing."

Eight seconds later, the third Quickening ceased…and the Eva fell to the ground, self-ejecting its plug out its back and flushing out its LCL stored inside.

"A salvaged core could've explained why this sort of thing happens every time an Angel gets killed," Ritsuko stated, "and this boy just smashes it like it were made of glass."

"He wasn't going to risk the Angel coming back," said Takuya to her. "If shattering weak spot of each Angel means preserving what's left of the world we live in…then what Shinji does with the Eva is better, regardless of the order he's given."

-x-

Laying against the edge of the interior of the plug, exhausted from all three Quickenings, Shinji dangled his right arm outside the plug as he recouped.

 _Three Quickenings,_ he thought, looking over at the remains of the other two Angels as they began to decompose or transmute into something beyond what they were likely made of. _I want to watch The One again when I get home._

He reached up to his headset and removed it from his head and threw it aside. The Angels weren't part of the Game, but their presence and power was an unexpected addition to it, and anyone immortal that could kill them would reap the benefits of their downfall. And Shinji had reaped the benefits. Their powers were now his…until either he won the Game or someone took his head.

Before passing out, he saw some people stepping out of the pyramid and approaching the Eva.

-x-

Takeru, confined to a room after being brought to NERV HQ, pondered the safety of his grandson after feeling the three Quickenings he had received during three different battles that seemed to occur within minutes of each other. And then, there was Gendo, whom he hadn't seen yet, but was certainly cruel enough to have him detained to the chair with three sets of handcuffs.

 _Just one set of handcuffs would've been sufficient,_ he thought. _But no, Gendo's thugs have to go overboard with their methods. Did leaving him really damage him?_

The door in front of him opened and a man that looked like an older, colder version of himself stepped inside, orange-tinted glasses marking this guy as anything but friendly to talk to.

 _Kimochi warui,_ Takeru realized, seeing his son for the first time in forty years. "Speak of the monsters that plague your darkest days…and they manifest a new nightmare waiting to haunt you."

"Who are you?" Gendo demanded. "Why did you interfere in the reacquiring of an irreplaceable resource? And who do you work for?"

"Has anyone ever told you that you ask too many questions too fast? I'm an unemployed vagrant that found God in the darkness. I interfered because you were harassing a small child that was trying to worship his deities and find balance in his soul. My masters are nonexistent. I'm independent of employers and have no one of which to serve, but my allegiance is to those of righteousness, like Akira Rokubungi herself."

This must've infuriated Gendo to hear the name of his ancestress as a person this man swore allegiance to. The way he looked was a face contorted with jealousy, like he couldn't stand anyone that he couldn't control for his own ends.

"Who are you?" He asked him.

Takeru sighed and uttered, "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Not unless there's any sense of morality and acceptance left within your soul."

"Then you have wasted my time."

"Have I really? Would you care to know what's going on? About Shinji? Why he really hasn't aged in four years? Unlike some people, I have affection for children who have suffered from events in which they have committed no wrongdoings to anyone…and I've not forgotten my own sins committed, which I think about every single day. You abandoned your own son…and you have done absolutely nothing to make amends. It probably means nothing to someone like you to hear this after forty years, Gendo, but I'm sorry for what I did to you, not knowing the ramifications would lead you to being the awful man that you are. I'm sorry for what I did to you, your mother and sister. I'm sorry."

This caught Gendo off his guard. A man he just met apologizing to him for something that transpired forty years ago.

"What are you talking about?" He questioned. "Sorry for what?"

-x-

Shinji awoke to the scent of a vanilla incense and saw Akira and Takuya in front of him.

"How long was I out?" He asked them.

"You were unconscious for the remainder of the previous day," Takuya explained to him. "You crashed and burned after the last battle."

He slowly got up and noticed something wrong with this picture: His sword and tanto were absent from his possession.

Akira saw his concern and moved in her seat, reaching back and pulling something out from behind her, revealing them to be his blades, alleviating his fear.

"You don't want to know how many black eyes I had to give and how many pressure points I had to hit before the security guards got the message that these were going back to you," she expressed, placing them on the bedside. "Even Ms. Katsuragi tried to get in the way. I don't think she's ever felt so helpless, laying on the ground before."

Shinji looked at Takuya, who nodded in the positive, backing up Akira's story.

"Nobody else wanted to mess with her after that stunt Ms. Katsuragi tried to pull," he confessed.

-x-

"…She was right about the pressure point disabling," went Maya to Ritsuko, informing her superior about the status of the people that came between Shinji's female guardian and his blades being confiscated by NERV when they were personal property. "They started to feel sensation in their arms and legs after a few hours."

Standing in front Unit-01 after it had been checked and cleared of any abnormalities or damage, the two were left to try and figure out what to make of the remains of the Angels that Shinji didn't destroy entirely, but left in transmuted states. The remains of what had to be the strongest Angel they had ever encountered so far was decaying to a form of iron while the twin Angels were decaying into a state of platinum or obsidian. The fragments of the core from the fish Angel were picked up, but they may as well have been thrown away because they had become brittle and reduced to a fine dust.

"Three Angels in one day, though," Maya sighed, "and Shinji was able to beat them all. Either he has the ability to do so with the Eva because he gets encouragement from his guardians or because it has something to do with his petiteness or something else entirely, regardless of what he's told to do, Shinji's become extremely invaluable."

"Yet, even if there was a chance of the Angel coming back, he could've at least spared the core."

Meanwhile, Yui, who had been working on modifying the Eva, was asked by her husband to run a DNA test, something she found unusual…just as she found his expression of unease unusual. When she was finished, she was puzzled by the results of the samples she was provided with. For some reason, her husband's DNA sample…had a genetic match to the sample taken from the man that interfered with Section Two trying to keep watch over Shinji. The two were somehow related, which didn't make any sense, bringing into question who this guy was…and why Gendo seemed bothered by him.

Yui even ran her son's DNA against the man's…and couldn't believe that they had the same "Y" chromosome. Somehow, all three were related, but Yui couldn't understand how this was so. At first, she wanted to believe that the DNA sample taken from the man was faulty or had been manipulated, but after she ran it again, just to be sure, she couldn't find anything wrong with the sample.

"Who is this man?" She asked Gendo after finding him in his office, seeing him drinking a bottle of whiskey. "He seems to be related to you, meaning he's also related to Shinji. I thought you said your relatives were all dead."

He looked up at her and responded, "I thought he was dead for forty years. He never gave any reason for why."

"Gendo…what are you talking about? Who is he?"

"He claims he's my father."

"What? But that's not possible. I mean, he'd be over forty years older than this guy. How… How?"

"The same way, he claims, that Shinji hasn't aged in four years. He says he'll tell us everything he knows, but he wants us to let the boy and his guardians leave the base and go home."

"How do you know he's not lying to you, just messing with your head?" Yui tried to reason.

"He knew things," he explained to her. "He knew what my mother was like before she died, the last time he saw her, what my sister was like, who she was friends with at the time… My mother never remarried after he left. She never recovered from the breakup."

-x-

"…Shinji, I think you should stop piloting the Eva," went Takuya to his grandson as said boy changed out of his hospital garments and into his cleaned clothes from the previous day.

"Believe me, nothing would be more relieving than to walk away from NERV and its flaws," he told him. "Unfortunately, NERV has idea of what they're dealing with and no chance of helping anyone live to see the next year without my assistance, no matter how much it disgusts me to be near two of them."

"And their refusal to come clean with the truth?" Akira asked him, holding his blades.

"That, too, Akira. But it doesn't matter, anymore. I don't need them to tell me anything now. In the words of those that spent their lives looking for closure, all has finally been revealed to me. The truth, the agendas, the modus operandi, everything."

"And how serious is what NERV doing wrong?"

"In three words: There's no forgiveness. Let's get the Hell out of here."

"No argument from me."

They stepped out of the room and into the hall, going towards the elevators. Several men in suits were stationed there, which irritated the trio.

"Really?" Akira questioned. "We're going to go through this again?"

"We're under orders to keep you three from leaving the base," one of the suits explained.

"And…what's to keep us from leaving, anyway?" Shinji asked him, hoping he sounded intimidating. "What if I were to walk out, regardless of your orders?"

"We would have to insist that you stay confined," another suit responded.

Slowly, Shinji reached for his tanto…when a cell phone rang.

"Yes, sir?" The suit in front of Akira uttered, but then his blank expression contorted under his glasses. "Yes, they're still here. We're… But… Un…understood, sir."

He hung up and stepped aside from the elevator he was in front of.

"You're free to leave the base," he told them.

-x-

"…He was reaching for his tanto," Yui, watching through the security monitors, spoke with concern as she saw her son slowly go for the hilt of his danger before her husband ordered Section Two to let him and his guardians leave. "He wasn't hesitating at all."

 _He wasn't the only one reaching for a blade,_ thought Fuyutsuki, seeing Akira and reminding his former student that she carried a katana on her person, which only further explained how Shinji knew swordsmanship and his willingness to use lethal force on the suits.

"I'm starting to wonder if being with these two is really healthy for him," Yui brought up.

"He has spent four years with them, which doesn't make up entirely for the five-six years he was living with your sister's family," he reminded her of the choice Gendo made after her failed Contact Experiment with the Eva. "He may still have the trauma of that time, but being with these two seems to give him stability."

"Still, I don't like that he lives with a woman that…gave him swords to play with."

Fuyutsuki then decided that he should own up to his subtle concerns about the boy and his apparent swordsmanship prowess…and a different matter that bothered him.

"The Committee will want to speak with him, eventually," he said. "They think he may possess some value to what they want to achieve."

-x-

"…So, what now?" Takuya asked Akira and Shinji as they walked to their Prius in the parking lot. "Home or the temples?"

"Temple," went Shinji to him. "The sooner we deal with Aceline, the better."

"Assuming she's still at the temple," Akira reminded them; she could remember a time when she was on an island by herself with no food or drinking water for several years to almost a decade, survived only by her immortality…and the torture of a ravenous need to feed that she couldn't satiate until after she had been rescued by a passing ship. "Immortals need to eat."

"Yeah, that's right," Shinji accepted. "A Quickening only abates one's hunger."

Near the Prius was Shinji's minibike, and the boy got on it after setting his sword-holding tube case down on its right side.

"Maybe Aceline will tolerate miso soup," he suggested.

To be continued…

A/N: Next chapter will be the revelation of the truth behind the immortals, but how does it affect Gendo, Yui, Fuyutsuki and others?


	10. Cold Truths and Colder Steel

Creation began on 02-10-17

Creation ended on 02-26-17

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Immortal Ikari: Cold Truths and Colder Steel

Takeru Nagisa, still in the room his son left him in, waited for him to return so that he held up his end of would-be deal he had made with him in exchange for letting Shinji leave the base. He might've had a nonexistent relationship with his grandson and ancestress-in-law, but he really hoped to repair his damaged relationship with his son. If he could succeed there, then hopefully the relationship between Shinji and his parents could be saved…if there was anything left to repair of the relationship at all. And he wanted to save what little family was left, even if it meant going against the Rules of the Game.

The door opened and Gendo came back in, accompanied by a young woman that seemed to have features echoed in Shinji.

"Well?" He asked his son.

"Shinji has left the base with his guardians," Gendo responded.

"That's good to hear. Who might this be?"

"Yui Ikari," the woman introduced herself.

"Nice to meet you."

Though Takeru had to wonder how his grandson could have a strained relationship with his mother and not just his father.

"I was told you have information that could clarify a few things we don't know," she spoke, and he sighed while nodding his head.

"Whenever you're ready to hear what I have to tell," he told them.

"Divulge," Gendo ordered him.

"I haven't aged since the night I was shot at and died on my way home from shopping. Forty years of an existence as the one thing thought impossible for many around the world. An immortal…and part of a widespread group of them involved in a war between light and darkness. It's called the Game."

"The Game? Immortal? But that's…" Yui spoke, but didn't finish.

"Like what was publicized to the world about what caused the Second Impact? Unfortunately, the Game has begun its end phase…which is very fortunate for those that have spent a long time waiting for this to occur."

"How big is this Game and how does one play it?" Gendo asked.

"Only immortals can play the Game, but the Rules are simple enough to understand. When two immortals meet to fight, it must always be one-on-one and to the death, as immortals can only die permanently when beheaded by other immortals, and can receive no outside aid. Those of whom are new to the Game are entitled what is referred to as a grace period, during which they receive training and protection from an older immortal willing to provide both for them, and once they're educated in the Rules and how to defend themselves, they're on their own. If immortals don't want to fight at all, their only safety option is to be on holy ground. Churches, cemeteries, shrines, anyplace that is deemed a place of divine importance, as none of them, no matter how vile they are, will violate that law just to claim another's head. It's a tradition."

"Is it possible for more immortals to show up?"

"No. We've already had the Gathering. All the immortals left in the world have been accounted for. Accounted and gathered."

"Gathering? Someone went and gathered these…immortals?" Yui asked him.

"No. The Gathering is when the immortals remaining in the world begin to feel an irresistible pull towards a place far away at some point in time in the future…and are driven to get there as soon as possible. The place far away is Tokyo-3. The time in the future is Twenty-Fifteen. The outcome is anyone's guess. The combatants are twenty immortals. Though, I'm sure that number has been reduced by now to at least sixteen or maybe even fourteen."

"Yet, you're not out there…so how could you possibly know how many have died?"

"I don't, but immortals just have a way of knowing."

"Were you involved in any way with any recent deaths?" Gendo asked him.

"No. I'm not a killer. I don't go around looking for other immortals to behead, but that doesn't mean I enjoy the life of an immortal. I was thirty-two when I experienced my First Death…and I've been thirty-two for forty years. Not a day goes by where I wonder what might've been had I not left home, had I not gone to the supermarket. I'd still have my family. But I can't change what's in the past…nor should I try to undo it, not without causing a worse fate to occur."

"What were to happen if an immortal were to be killed by a mortal? Would they themselves become immortal?"

"No, Gendo, and it'd be impossible. Only immortals can kill immortals. An immortal killed by a mortal would only be temporary. Besides, I've more or less offered my head to Akira herself."

"Akira?" Yui questioned. "You mean, Akira Rokubungi? She's an immortal, too?"

"She and Shinji," he answered her.

"He's immortal?" Gendo questioned, unwilling to believe his son had achieved immortality before he himself could achieve godhood.

"I guess neither one ever told you. But yes… Yes, they are."

"But…no, Shinji can't be immortal," Yui spoke. "I mean, it's… That's not possible."

"How else do you explain why he hasn't aged since his tenth year? Why he hasn't grown an inch since then? It's because he experienced a First Death. It's because someone tried to kill him and did so, only for him to come back to life and remain frozen in time."

As much as Yui wanted to disbelieve the cause of her son's predicament, there was just something that never added up. Worse was Shinji was actually smaller than a ten-year-old was on average, but he acted so mature, vastly different from the child she had left behind years ago.

" _Your sister had attacked him with a baseball bat and a knife,"_ Fuyutsuki had told her. _"The doctors say his chances of survival were very slim, but he ended up recovering in a few days. He still has the knife wound where she stabbed him, though. He may never be rid of it, and he couldn't go back to that house, even if the cause of his attack by his aunt was listed as temporary insanity instead of attempted murder. Even Shinji feared going back there."_

 _But…_ _he couldn't have died,_ she thought, still wanting to disbelieve this man's words.

Takeru looked at the left side of the table and noticed a sharp edge. He took his left hand and slammed it against the edge, feeling it penetrate his skin.

"Aah!" He groaned, removing it from the edge, having drawn some blood. "I forget how much this hurts every time."

He put his hand on the table in front of them, revealing the severity of his self-inflicted injury.

"Are you crazy?" Yui asked him, about to get up and get a doctor, but stopped when she saw the next thing happen to his palm. "What the…"

Tiny sparks of electrical energy jumped on his injury as the cut flesh began to close up. The blood that seeped out flowing back inside. In less than a minute, the self-inflicted injury was gone, not even a scar remained.

"Would you like to see what other types of injuries I can survive?" He offered them.

-x-

"…It's too quiet out here," said Takuya to Akira as they and Shinji walked up the steps to the temple where they last saw Aceline.

Shinji, who was further up the steps, felt the presence of an immortal, and turned to face his guardians, carrying a thermos of miso soup.

"Someone's here," he told them, and resumed the trek up the steps to the temple.

Upon reaching the top and walking inside, he saw the lit lanterns that served as the temple's light at night…and Aceline herself, laying down on the floor.

"You stayed," he expressed, catching her attention as she turned and faced him.

"As much as I wanted to leave, I couldn't risk the wrath of The Demoness of those giant creatures that showed up yesterday," she explained.

"Angels, the people I aid in their alleged goal of protecting what's left of the human race call them. Not an appropriate choice of designation, if you ask me."

"Angels, huh? Hmph. Sounds like half of what's left of the rest of the world has taken religion…and shit allover it to screw with the deities."

Shinji sat down and placed the thermos in front of her.

"I hope you can stomach miso soup," he told her, sliding it over.

Aceline got up and accepted the thermos and opened it, seeing a strange concoction that didn't look like any soup she had seen.

"Miso soup?" She asked him.

"A common Japanese dish," he explained.

Deciding to forego the cup, the immortal Frenchwoman chugged the soup down from the thermos. It was an interesting flavor. Some bitterness, not very sweet, but the bits of celery and lumps of what had to be soybeans gave it a pinch of satisfaction to her tongue.

"How's it taste?" She heard Akira ask her as she stepped inside the temple.

She put the thermos down and wiped her mouth clean.

"Nothing like I've ever tasted before," she responded.

-x-

"…So, let me see if I understand this correctly," went Misato to Yui, who felt the need to confine in someone that had some interaction with Shinji, regardless of any emotions that were negative or just indifferent. "The guy that Section Two brought in after interfering with trying to bring Shinji in…is your husband's father…and…he's immortal?"

"Yes," she answered her. "I've ran the DNA several times, and it proves that this…Takeru Nagisa and he are related. This, of course, makes him Shinji's grandfather."

In one of the halls of the base, Misato looked at a printout of the mysterious man that was Commander Ikari's father and found it hard to believe that the two were related. She even found it harder to believe that he was the Third Child's grandfather (and in a weird sense, she could see more comparison between them than between the boy and his parents).

"And…he only ended up being immortal…because someone killed him?" She asked.

"According to him, only a rare few can become immortal by experiencing what he called a First Death," Yui explained. "But now that something else called the Gathering has happened, there won't be any more immortals…and the ones left in the world are all here in the city, facing each other in a secret war between light and darkness to claim something called the Prize, which could be anything. The worst part of it all is what this means for NERV. He revealed that Shinji and Akira are also immortals, victims of this…Game that they're playing."

"What?! He's crazy! There is no way that boy of yours is incapable of dying."

"He was ten when my sister attacked him, and he hasn't gotten any older, physically, ever since that day. How else do you explain his unchanged appearance?"

"Staying up late? Not getting enough milk in his diet?"

"Or why every time an Angel is defeated by him, that electrical phenomenon happens that affects him? If it had been any other Evangelion or a different pilot, that wouldn't have occurred."

"Oh! Doctor Ikari!" They both turned and saw Maya Ibuki coming towards them, a sheet of paper in her hands. "Doctor Akagi was running further analysis on your son's blood samples, and she found something disturbing that you need to know."

She handed Yui the paper and the woman saw some words that were highlighted in yellow.

Misato saw the highlighted words and couldn't make heads or tails with them.

"What are those?" She asked.

"Chemicals," Yui answered, bothered by this discovery. "Growth-stunting chemicals."

"Growth…growth-stunting? But how they'd get in Shinji's blood?"

"These aren't chemicals that he couldn't gotten in a few days or even a year," went Maya to them, having done her research in chemistry. "These must've been in his body for years. Probably eight years, give or take."

At first, Yui wanted to question this Akira on whether or not she had anything to do with this, but then had to consider that the immortal woman (if that's what she truly was) wasn't likely to have it in her to cause any harm to her son, no matter how large or small. Also, the majority of the chemicals listed that were found in Shinji's blood could be found in herbal concoctions rarely used by people, meaning…

"My sister," she uttered, leaning against the wall beside her right shoulder.

"Your sister? As in his maternal aunt?" Maya asked.

"I don't think her temporary insanity was temporary insanity at all. I think she really tried to kill Shinji that day. She must've tried poisoning him by slipping him the chemicals without his knowledge and couldn't wait for him to die."

"Suppose she did try such a move, why would she do so? That doesn't make any sense." Misato expressed; there wasn't a definite reason to such a motive.

Yui then turned to face her and stated, "I need to talk to her and my husband on what happened."

-x-

"…You'll never let this go, will you?" Aceline asked Shinji, referring to the hidden power she had that The Demoness wanted to behead her for.

"If it means saving others involved in the Game, I'll never drop it," he answered her, having stated his reason for wanting the power.

As they were all still in the temple, they were prohibited to fight unless it was off holy ground.

"Very well, then," she gave in, and picked up her sword. "If you want this power so much, then fight me for it. I prefer to go down with my head held high."

Shinji looked to Akira, as if needing permission or some sort of encouragement, and she nodded her head in the positive; the only way to obtain the power of this safety net for immortals…was to behead Le Femme Aceline and obtain her Quickening.

"You leave me no other alternative, Ms. Aceline," he told her and got up; if this was the way it had to be, then Shinji had no choice but to accept Aceline's decision to be stubborn to the bitter end, no matter how much it affected him. "Let's go get this over with."

As much as Takuya wanted to intervene, he knew he had no place in this matter. This was between the immortals, and all he could do was pray that Shinji knew what he was doing.

Akira wanted to intervene, too, but the challenge was thrown at her grandson and he accepted. And she had to follow the Rules.

They all walked out of the temple and down the steps.

"Who frightens you more?" Aceline asked Shinji. "Me or The Demoness?"

"Compared to The Demoness, you're just another child molester that loves to go after any kid you find attractive in your eyes." He revealed his opinion. "You don't send chills down my spine like she does."

"Can't blame me for trying to be as intimidating as possible. The Demoness disturbs even me. I don't know how old she is, but I couldn't detect a trace of morality in that woman."

"There may not be anything left of her that is like that of a mortal woman," said Akira to them.

"You're far older than I am, Akira Rokubungi. Surely, you could find a way to overcome her." Aceline suggested.

"You're grasping at straws, Aceline. My last Quickening was four years ago, and the guy that attacked me was foolish to come at me just because he was eight-hundred years old. Worse was that he had only amassed seventeen Quickenings in his life, and none of them were strong, just foundlings. The older an immortal is, the more experience they obtain in their lives, the greater their Quickening is upon being beheaded. I won't go after that woman until I've amassed sufficient Quickenings from more experienced immortals that threaten my life."

Once they got onto the street, Shinji went over to his bike and took out his sword.

"I would give you the opportunity to walk away from this, but I'm going to regret this, either way," he told Aceline. "Still, I have to offer this opportunity for the sake of reminding myself that I am neither cruel or cynical or some other form of negative. You can walk away from this with your head still attached to your shoulders, Aceline."

 _At least he's trying to give her a way out,_ thought Akira, standing with Takuya by the Prius as the two immortals stood on the streets with their swords brandished.

"Your offer is greatly appreciated, but declined," Aceline responded.

And then the sounds of metal clashing against metal came.

-x-

"…How can you be for certain that it was your sister?" Gendo asked Yui, being informed about the chemicals found in Shinji's blood that stunted his growth.

"She's the herbalist in the family," Yui explained. "She knows what herbs do what to people, whether it's improving their immune system…or stunting physical development. Before she tried to kill him, she had to have been harming him without his knowledge, trying to kill him over the years, but got tired of waiting for him to die."

"This Akira could've done such to him."

"What motive does your immortal ancestress have to want to harm Shinji? And if what your father said is true, immortals don't change physically after they die and come back to life, meaning that Shinji was small before they met…and hasn't grown an inch since then. What's more, is that Akira doesn't harm her own descendants, no matter who they are…or what they did in the past or have done in the present."

"No, according to that man, she just requests and insists that they own up to and take responsibility for their choices before they have to pay a price that they'll have to pay, eventually, regardless of their intentions. But he also said that immortals can't have children, so how was she able to have children? How was he able to have children?"

"They had children before they died. They didn't break any rules or defy any restrictions or limitations. It's no different from being sterilized after having children. They gained immortality after having children. DNA doesn't lie."

"And then, there's this Game that we're forbidden from interfering with. Hardly anyone really knows what's going on unless these people choose to confide in those they trust to keep their secrets. Beheading one another to be the last one left for something they don't know much about? How can they be certain that this…this Prize truly exists for them?"

"Nobody receives anything until they've fulfilled a certain requirement, Gendo. This is no different from any other situation people find themselves in."

"Except most people don't kill each other in order to survive."

"Except people do kill each other most of, if not all of, the time."

"And our son is actually involved in this madness? He actually…plays this Game?"

"He didn't have a choice. When he was killed and came back to life, he was made into a participant. Akira found him and taught him the ways of the Game, how to survive, how to fight back, how to use every advantage he has in order to outlast any that come after him."

"Kill them before they kill you. This means that, sooner or later, he may have to face Akira because of how the Game works. Relatives or not, the fact that they're both immortals means that if it comes down to the both of them, they'll have to face each other in the end…to the death."

Yui wouldn't deny that possibility; it was just the nature of the Game. She had her concerns, even if Shinji kept her and Gendo at a great distance out of anger and pain at being left alone (she could only suspect that during the previous interrogation between him and Captain Katsuragi that he didn't want to be compared to either parent was because of the neglect and exploitation), she worried that her son and his…ancient grandmother would have to face off, and Akira would kill Shinji…or he would kill her.

"But if Shinji were to be suddenly removed from her care, then Akira's chances of harming him, if it ever comes to that, are reduced," said Gendo to her.

"Except he trusts her and her husband," she told him. "We should probably set up a meeting just to talk…and see how far their relationship extends."

-x-

They were fortunate enough that the streets were empty and the fight was contained to being near the temple grounds. Or rather, they were fortunate that Shinji was the more logical immortal to try and keep the fighting contained to where it initially started, though Le Femme Aceline wasn't going easy on him just because he was a shorty.

Clash! Aceline's falchion was blocked once more by Shinji's jian, surprising the woman with how strong the boy appeared.

"Child immortals aren't supposed to be this strong," she uttered to Shinji, who pushed her back. "Even with Quickenings."

Shinji swung his sword twice in his left hand and placed it in front of himself, aiming its end at the woman.

"I was trained by the best immortal I know there is," he stated simply, waiting for her to make the next move. "The greater your instructor and your drive to learn all there is, your chances of surviving anywhere rise exponentially."

Aceline then charged towards him, swinging her falchion with enough force that she cleaved half of the front of a car in half!

Shinji, thanks to his pint size, dodged and ran around Aceline, cutting through the flesh on her legs, causing her to fall to her knees.

"Aaah!" She gasped, and then got back up. "I haven't had this much excitement in ages!"

Shinji jumped onto another car and then jumped high into the air, far higher than he expected himself to.

"Whoa," Akira and Takuya expressed; based on their perception, it looked like Shinji had jumped over twenty feet into the air.

"How… He never jumped that high before," Takuya told Akira. "How is he…"

"It must be because of the recent Quickenings from the Angels," she suggested. "Three of them in a day, one after another, a rather powerful increase in one's abilities."

Deciding to accept it as it was, Shinji aimed his body downwards toward Aceline.

Aceline raised her falchion up and prepared to block the boy's sword strike.

SLASH! Shinji, with the momentum of his descent, cut through Aceline like a knife through butter, just not in the way the immortal woman anticipated him to try.

His jian didn't go towards her neck, but through her waist, cleaving into the flesh and bone.

"Ugh!" She gasped, turning to face Shinji as he hit the ground, rolling and tumbling across the street until he came to a halt. "You…you cut me. You cut right through me."

Laying on his back, Shinji hadn't expected himself to achieve such a daring feat against anyone before, and felt drained; he suspected that such a stunt had been more exhausting on him than it might've been on her.

Blood sprayed across the ground from Aceline's waist as she staggered to approach the boy…and then…her upper body disconnected from her lower body and fell to the ground.

"Aaaurgh!" She groaned, unable to feel her legs. "Goddamn you!"

Unfortunately, being severed from the waist down didn't kill her as a beheading would have, but regenerating or reattaching oneself to their lost body parts would take a while. A while that Aceline didn't have. As long as it seemed like the boy was weakened, she had a chance of capitalizing on his incapacitation…and began to drag herself and her sword towards the boy that was ten feet from her.

Shinji turned to face her, seeing half her body dragging itself towards him. He was down right now…but he wasn't done for just yet.

"Come on, Shinji, get up!" He heard Takuya cheer him on; it wasn't against the Rules for friends, family or allies to encourage immortals to keep going.

Aceline had gotten close enough to see that the boy was just laying there on the street.

"You are dead…pretty boy," she told him, raising her falchion up over his head. "Aaaaurgh!"

Clash! Her blade was blocked…by a glowing, pinkish blade that suddenly shot out of Shinji's left hand.

"What?!" Aceline gasped.

"Forgive me, Aceline," Shinji told her, and used his tanto to cut her head clean off with lightning reflexes, sending it rolling away.

It rolled towards Akira where it stopped.

"You…you taught him well, Akira," her head uttered. "I was handed my defeat…by a pretty boy that offered me mercy by being allowed to walk away. Aaugh!"

Her face locked in an expression struggling to find a sense of relief, with her eyes closed and her mouth half-closed.

Electrical energy began to surge out of her head and danced along the pavement where her legs and torso were as it dispersed into several surges and penetrated Shinji's body as he was lifted off his feet as he got up.

"Aaurgh!" He groaned as he received Aceline's Quickening…and all the secrets she had had over her lifetime. "Urgh!"

This woman had gone after many immortals and killed them for their power, her memories flashing before his very eyes. It was his hope that he would find what he was looking for through this new Quickening.

FLASH! Shinji was standing in front of Aceline and a fallen immortal man that she had defeated, receiving his Quickening…and learning of his secrets.

Somehow, the guy exhibited a power that wasn't seen in other immortals, something to do with the sword. There were memory scenes where he was seen with other men and women, other immortals, and there were displays of electrical energy and twisters of air and water at various locations where they took place, but they all seemed to have one aspect in common: The immortals were always holding onto the same sword. They seemed to be Quickenings, but they were different from the ones Shinji had seen or experienced because the guy that was killed by Aceline always left the other immortal alone after each of these phenomenons…and the other immortals were left alive…and he knew why now.

 _Now, I have the power!_ He thought, dropping to his knees as his Quickening ended.

"Shinji!" Akira and Takuya called out to him as he felt himself being picked up by someone.

He looked up at whoever it was holding him and saw that it was Akira…and gave a weak smile.

"There is a safety net," he uttered to her, and then passed out.

-x-

"…You don't think we should try to set up a meeting with them?" Yui asked Gendo, finding him standing in front of Unit-01.

"The last time we met, there wasn't anything pleasant being said," he explained.

"Fuyutsuki explained to me what happened," she revealed to him. "But your father regretted what he did when he left upon realizing that he was immortal after getting killed. He hated what he did, even though it was to protect you all from danger against other immortals if they came looking for him."

 _He could've stayed,_ Gendo thought, actually trying to think of a time where his father might've been believed that, even as an immortal, he could have chosen to stay with his family had he confided in them, explain why he had to leave them. "Do you think things might've been different if he had just told my mother? Would things be different if we had known?"

"I can't say for certain, Gendo. Would you had believed him if had revealed this forty years ago? Would your mother had believed him if he told her forty years ago? Also, would he had been taken serious by the community if they had known he was made immortal by being killed during a turf war? What if the police thought he was crazy? Or if he was believed, would he be treated like a guinea pig by scientists trying to figure out how he became immortal and try to duplicate the reaction?"

Gendo then realized that because of his wife, there may had been no way that even he would've believed his father all that time ago. He probably would have believed that he was crazy. Or that he would've been sought after by scientists and treated as a laboratory specimen in order to study his immortality and see if they could find a way to make others immortal. There may had been no way that any of them would have even a semblance of a regular life if the whole world knew or if only a bunch of people knew.

"Do you suppose they eat out or just at home?" He asked her.

"Probably at home," Yui suggested, wondering why her husband was suddenly wanting to set up a meet between them and Akira and her husband…or rather, her current husband (since she was certain that Akira, being immortal, had been married many times in the past). "If we meet with them, we should tell them everything. I've never even met Akira like I've met her husband, whichever one he is in the numeral sense."

Hearing this, of course, made Gendo think about his previous relationships with the women of the Akagi family after Yui's failed experiment with the Eva over a decade ago. He had to guess that unlike him, his immortal ancestress' relationships with her mortal spouses over the years were genuine and she stayed with them until they died from natural causes. Maybe even remarrying over and over again over time, every few years (or even centuries) to keep from going mad over the heartache that came with each loss.

"What is left to tell?" He asked her.

-x-

Even though Aceline had tried to kill Shinji, Akira still had to show some respect to the dead woman, to a degree, and gathered her remains and called the police with a burner phone to report a dead body. Through careful manipulation of her vocal cords, she made herself sound like a disgruntled man and then destroyed the phone to prevent being traced. While they would probably investigate the beheadings that would be occurring in the city, she had to hope that they would be unable to find out who the culprit was in this case.

"I guess his seventh Quickening really took a lot out of him," Takuya told her, putting Shinji to bed in his futon as she put his sword and tanto up.

Separating them, Shinji had amassed seven Quickenings from adult immortals and six Quickenings from the Angels, totaling to thirteen Quickenings, which, while still a small number compared to the ones amassed by older immortals over the years, was quite an impressive accomplishment for the child immortal. In fact, it had to be because of his Angel-derived Quickenings that he was suddenly stronger than a child immortal wasn't supposed to be.

"They're probably becoming heavier hitters for him," she responded to him as they stepped out of Shinji's room and into the living room. "He said he found the safety net of immortals through the Quickening. I hope to understand what it is and how it will change things for the Game when he wakes up."

Sitting on the sofa, the couple sighed as they reclined and relaxed.

"I'm just glad you both are still alive," Takuya told her. "When Aceline was about to take him out, my heart felt like it was about to drop."

"When Shinji stopped her with that energy blade, my heart stopped."

The two then sighed again…and kissed for the first time in three days. Ever since the Gathering occurred, these two hadn't had time for anything else but their concerns about the Game, the other immortals, their grandson's welfare, the Angels and NERV and the other problems that hindered their lives. While Takuya accepted that this came with the consequences of being married to an immortal, there were random times where Akira, being as old as she was and living the way she did, would become either moody or frustrated, unable to vent properly without her husband's assistance as her life partner. When they ceased kissing, Akira got up and expressed that she was going to shower and turn in for the remainder of the day, leaving Takuya alone in the room.

-x-

"…The police found her secret stash of herbal remedies and confirmed that they're the ones with the growth-stunting chemicals that we found in Shinji's blood," said Yui to Gendo, Fuyutsuki, Misato and Ritsuko in her husband's office. "She'd been poisoning him ever since he was left with her family by spiking his meals with them."

"And he never knew," Misato spoke up.

"Worse was that her husband also knew what she did…and he did nothing to stop her."

"Attempted murder by poisoning, attempted murder by assault, depraved indifference, accessory, aiding and abetting… They practically got away with trying to kill him," said Fuyutsuki, disgusted with this revelation.

"Shouldn't this discovery nullify the temporary insanity bull they pulled?" Ritsuko suggested.

"Yeah, not that it matters. If the boy isn't suffering as a result of what was done to him, they can't be charged with what they did to him, no matter how long ago it was." Misato explained to her; even if Shinji's very physical growth and development had been stunted prior to becoming immortal, he wasn't in any physical or mental pain that was related to what happened to him. "Although, Shinji did say he would periodically experience migraines and heartburn from what his aunt did to him."

"Migraines from being struck with a baseball bat and heartburn from being stabbed in the heart?" Fuyutsuki spoke up. "Wouldn't those still be an extension of assault?"

"They'll give it a shot, but until further notice, they're just being detained until they're properly evaluated. Worst case scenario for them is their son gets removed from their custody." Yui told them the police's decision.

Gendo didn't say anything, but didn't ignore what was being said. First, he echoes a choice his immortal father had made that was to protect his family from other immortals that lived to take people's heads for this power they had, then finds out that his son is immortal from being harmed by his wife's relatives, and now finds out that those same relatives had deliberately been harming his son for years. No matter how others chose to view it, what happened to Shinji was, regardless of whether it was directly or indirectly, his fault because he chose to leave him alone with those people and didn't look back.

-x-

"…I hope one of the remaining immortals takes your head," a female immortal threatened The Demoness, who cut her arms off and impaled her against a wall with a rebar. "Maybe Akira Rokubungi…or Quentin MacLeod! Someone that understands that someone like you must never claim the Prize!"

Slash! The Demoness beheaded the man and that was that.

"Yadda-yadda-yah," she sighed, and then raised her sword up into the air as she received the Quickening. "Aaaah!"

The glass windows from the nearby building of the sight where she fought the other immortal all shattered to the ground as the fallen immortal's remains levitated off the rebar.

"Ah-ha-ha-ha!" She laughed when the energy was channeled through her body.

Nearby construction equipment were blown off their treads and wheels onto their sides as the woman walked away from the scene.

"Now, only twelve of us remain," The Demoness uttered, walking over to her car and drove away, leaving the latest in her list of fallen adversaries in her pursuit of the Prize.

-x-

Awakening from an unusual dream where he was atop a pale horse with a horn on its head, Shinji felt better than he had been last night, finding himself in his room.

"Hello?" He uttered, stepping out of his room and carrying his jian with him into the kitchen. "Hello?"

A sliding door further down the hall opened and out came Akira, dressed in one of Takuya's over-sized shirts, yawning.

"I take it you and Takuya had fun last night while I was out cold?" Shinji asked her; he was no fool, knowing fully that his ancestral grandmother and step-grandfather had sex last night, and he could smell the stench that lingered on her skin.

Akira looked down at her current attire and then back at Shinji as he sat down at the table.

"I was moody last night," she told him.

"That's understandable."

"How do you feel?"

"Sore and stiff. I felt rested when I woke up, but that was only mentally. Physically, my body feels like a sack of rocks."

"Then you should treat yourself to a hot bath. You can tell us about what you discovered last night after you're sorted out."

"Yeah, that's a good idea. Thanks."

He then got up and went back to his room to get a change of clothes as Akira got started on the necessities for breakfast.

-x-

Takeru heard the sound of his cell door opening up and he sat up on his metal cot, seeing Gendo with a security guard.

"What is the meaning of this?" He asked his son, shielding his eyes from the light in front of him. "I thought I told you everything I knew."

"It's not about that," Gendo told him. "I need you to do something for me."

This was the first time in four decades that Takeru expected to hear such words from his son. The last time he had ever asked his father of anything was just to work on his homework.

"What do you want me to do?" He asked him.

"I need you…to ask Akira if she and the others are free for dinner tonight," Gendo explained.

To be continued…

A/N: Uh-oh! What can be expected from such an attempt?


	11. Feast of the Ages

Creation began on 02-26-17

Creation ended on 08-22-17

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Immortal Ikari: Feast of the Ages

Even though he'd been told that hot baths and showers helped to cleanse the mind as well as the body, for Shinji, it was often just a way to escape from some of his darkest memories or even darker thoughts by using the hot water. As he looked up at the bathroom ceiling, the immortal child sunk into the hot bath, feeling his joints cease in their aching.

Meanwhile, Akira had just finished putting on the coffee as Takuya stepped out of their bedroom.

"How is Shinji doing today?" He asks her.

"Other than the aching joints and stiff muscles, he's mentally rested," she answers him.

He sat at the table and then Akira set a plate of pancakes and scrambled eggs down in front of him.

"Thank you, dearest," he praised her.

"You're welcome," she responded, setting down hers and Shinji's for later when he gets out of the bathroom. "I'm hoping that Quentin and Jose are still around when I go out today."

"Why them?"

"As much as the Game compels us left that are immortal to come after each other, I'd still rather see them as friends and allies before having to face them as adversaries."

"Just promise you'll be careful out there. On second thought, I'll come with you."

"It's not Quentin or Jose that I'm fearful of, Takuya. It's only The Demoness."

-x-

"…Well, of course, I'll try to contact her, but I can't promise that they'll be interested," Takeru told Gendo, being handed his burner cell phone that he had to scavenge garbage bins across a town for months to acquire. "And with the Game affecting the immortals left, the ones that will headhunt every chance they get will take every advantage to be the last one standing. That means that if you want to meet with them, and if they choose to meet with you, it's gotta be someplace immortals can meet where their safety is guaranteed, where fighting is prohibited and they don't have to fear losing their heads, which means that it has to be on holy ground, like the temples."

"Why can't you just wear holy items, like crucifixes?"

"Anyone can wear those, but they mean nothing to an immortal. You could wear multiple trinkets associated to many religious practices, and you would still lose your head. Places deemed holy are the only sanctuary afforded to immortals. You could barricade yourself within a fortress as big as a city, and it wouldn't make any difference unless it was on holy ground. And with an immortal like The Demoness playing the Game for the Prize, you would have to accept the precautions against enemy immortals to keep the friends and loved ones of morality-driven immortals safe without interfering with their very lives."

"And this is all for something that only the immortals can obtain when there's only one left? What is so special about this…Prize?"

"I don't know what the Prize is, Gendo. My time in temples and churches, however, along with the long periods of meditation, gave me only a brief glimpse of what it entitles the victor. I saw two potential futures that depended upon the type of immortal that survives. In one of them, there are people able to live. I mean, actually live. There's barely any crime or depravity, and the weather changes with the passage of the seasons. It was only a brief glimpse, but it was a possibility of what could happen if a good immortal won the Prize."

"And the other possible outcome?"

"Just as much crime or depravity, but it's a world reborn of suffering in darkness, day and night, ruled by just one person that has obtained all the power they would ever need to reign over mankind until the planet was no more than an echo of its former self… But that…is only if an evil immortal won. So, this is truly a struggle between light and darkness, good and evil, hope and despair."

"But what if mortals were to intervene?"

"Minor interference from mortals in immortal affairs is tolerated to a certain degree, but if the interference is constant, preventing a battle from being won between immortals, then the Game becomes more dangerous…for everyone. The fact that there can be only one is heavily stressed upon. Mortals can encourage and support the immortals they know, love and trust, but their interference should be only minor, like that of a cheerleader or confidant."

"And you're sure that there will be no new immortals because of this…Gathering?"

"I won't lie to you, Gendo. Only twenty of us were left in the world before the Gathering occurred…and now that number has been reduced…and you can't increase it or halt it, no matter what you try. I don't expect you to accept everything being said as the truth, but the Game is not to be trifled with by anyone that can't accept the harsh reality of how it plays with most immortals."

Takeru then dialed the number he got from Akira, waiting for the call to be received.

"Just so that you know, you're coming, too, if they're all for it," Gendo told his father.

"Okay."

-x-

"Yo, Shinji!" Kensuke greeted the immortal boy as he stepped into the classroom and sat at his desk. "We didn't see you for two days. Class Rep. was beginning to worry."

"I was not," Hikari defended. "It was actually Suzuhara that was worried."

"Really?" Toji reacted. "Weren't you the one that suggested we go to his home and check up on him?"

Shinji chuckled at their concern for him.

"Your concern is greatly appreciated," he told the three. "I assure you that I'm quite fine."

Just then, Rei stepped into the classroom and sat at her desk beside the window.

"Ayanami has been absent from school at around the same time you were," Toji informed Shinji. "And the day three monsters appear and go underground, nobody was sure what was going to happen."

Shinji turned to look at Rei and then back at his confidants.

"So long as I'm alive, I'll do whatever I have to in order to prevent any so-called end of the world phenomenon from happening," he told them. "Are you all free during the lunch period? There's a lot I need to get off my chest."

"Yeah, man," Kensuke told him. "Whatever you gotta share with us. Whenever you need to vent."

-x-

The sight of the new crime scene where a murder had occurred left Akira concerned that The Demoness was working overtime to end the Game as soon as possible so that she could win the Prize. People were starting to gossip as she drove further down the street.

"And the worst thing of it is they don't have the slightest clue as to why these beheadings are occurring," she told herself.

Whoosh! She felt the presence of another immortal nearby, one with lethal intention, and stopped at a crosswalk where people were relocating from one side of the street to the other.

Looking, she saw one of the men from that day on the rooftop leaning against the side of a building, loitering with an attitude.

He looked over at her and frowned, then pointed over to a parking lot across the street from him.

 _If this guy thinks he has a chance against me, he's very pathetic right now,_ she thought, and then felt her iPhone vibrate in her pocket. _Probably Takuya checking up on me and making sure that I got the groceries and not going after anyone just yet._

She took out her phone and found it was an unregistered number.

"Sorry, but unless you leave a voice message," she declined and pressed the button to terminate the call, "I won't bother with the caller."

-x-

"…Wait, she doesn't have your number registered in her phone?" Takeru asked Gendo after Akira failed to answer her phone for the third time. "If they don't know who's trying to contact them, or if a message isn't left to indicate who was trying to get in touch with them and why, they're not going to respond. Isn't that how people stay in touch these days, knowing who's trying to get in touch with them and why?"

"We haven't exactly been getting along," Gendo stated to his father.

Of course, that was an understatement. But Takeru knew there were other ways to get a message and leave a message; one just had to be creative and open to the possibilities.

"Do it old school, then," he told his son. "Contact those you know that may have some contact with them and have them deliver the request message. Neighbors, doctors, friends, people that they trust."

"If I knew any of them, I would try so," Gendo told him; the head of NERV had to own up to his immortal vagabond father that when he left his son, he cut off all ties with him, distancing himself from all aspects of his child's life, including the people he might've associated with.

He knew next to nothing about any of the people Shinji spent time with apart from Akira and her current husband.

"Do you have the number of any school that Shinji goes to?" Takeru suggested. "When parents can't reach their children directly and they're at school, they leave a message for their teachers or principals to relay to them in cases of emergencies."

-x-

It was strange to believe, almost unlikely, but they had seen him practice with his immortal ancestress in their swordsmanship. They knew what he was capable of when he needed to defend his head, but the thought of him now having claimed another adult immortal that held a secret that could prevent the deaths of the immortals remaining made Hikari, Toji and Kensuke feel a little bad for Shinji. If only because they knew he did what he had to in order to stop further harm from befalling those like his grandmother and her friends and allies. And the immortal he confided in them about was one of the bad ones, so what he did could've been seen as a public service of sorts if the rest of the world ever found out.

"…So…one of the last ones left is this woman called…The Demoness?" Toji asked him as they were having lunch on the rooftop.

"That's right," Shinji answered. "If what Akira told me is true, and the memories I obtained from Aceline confirm from her own experience, she's far worse than all other immortals, past and present. If she wins the Game, everyone will be at her merciless reign."

"But…you were able to get this power from Aceline before she could," reminded Kensuke to him. "If her reason for trying to get her was for it, then, despite any feelings I have about how it was done to obtain it being of the wrong sort, you were most fortunate in your endeavor to get it before she did. So now, you can help those that want to get out of the Game get out without killing them. I mean…you can do that now, right?"

"That's the thing of it," Shinji explained. "I can…but I haven't tried to yet on any that may want to escape the Game. If I do it with Akira, at least she'll be safe from me if I make it to the end, but I don't want to force her to get out if she doesn't want to. And then, there's my paternal grandfather. My father's father, who I didn't find out was immortal until just a few days ago when the Gathering started and I saw those left alive…and learned how he ended the way he did and why he had to abandon his family. If I take his Quickening, he can be free and try to pick up the pieces of his life while starting anew with a clean slate."

He was conflicted, they could see that on his face. Shinji wanted to avoid the possible conflict with his two immortal relatives and their friends, but he didn't want to take away their right to decide whether or not to walk away and reclaim their lives from before the Game. And from what any of the four were aware of, this power wasn't something that could remove Shinji from the Game, just those that sought to be removed from it; the power he received from Aceline was his and his alone until someone claimed his head…or he won the Game.

"Hey, Shinji," went Hikari to the boy, "when this is all over and done with…let's all go…do something only kids would do."

If she was trying to encourage him to not give up just because he found some sense of difficulty, Shinji was impressed.

"Like what?" He asked her.

"Movies, rollerskating, the beach. I don't really know, anymore. Who knows what children do that brings joy to their hearts?"

"Those that believe in never saying 'die'," he accepted, looking at his left hand, showing off a little of one of the powers he obtained from the Angels by making it glow with pinkish fire. "Never give up, never lose faith, and never say 'die'."

-x-

Better a principal or teacher than Rei herself, who probably wouldn't have done so if she found Shinji's current state unpleasant, even though she didn't know why just yet…and maybe never. When NERV called the school with a message for Shinji, the albino was left somewhat disgusted because it was Commander Ikari who called to leave the message instead of a representative, like Dr. Akagi or Captain Katsuragi.

When class was back in session, the elderly teacher looked down at his desk and picked up the note that had been left there.

"Uh, Mr. Ikari," he uttered, and all eyes were on Shinji, "this message came from the Principal's office from your father."

Shinji sighed and got up to retrieve the note from him.

"Thank you," he told him, looking at the note and wondering why his old man would insist upon such a request from any of them. _It's not like I want to reconcile with them, anyway. That's never going to happen unless they let go of their intentions. Ever._

Whoosh! He stopped walking halfway back to his desk, looked out the window…and felt Akira receiving a new Quickening, relieved that she was still alive.

-x-

The guy wasn't even one-hundred-fifty years old, and Akira's new Quickening revealed that his introduction to the world of the immortals began during the first World War…and that his original name was Johnathan Spades. A former soldier that constantly believed in wars and how peace was nothing more than a band-aid to a temporary solution. He had thought that by beheading Akira, he would have all the experience he needed to face The Demoness and be the last one standing, able to bring about eternal peace through the use of the Prize…but Akira found that he himself had become heavily corrupted by his delusions of war and his inability to try and live without the threat and need of it, becoming a lowly fiend.

Now, drenched because of the sprinklers, Akira ran back to her car and hid her sword in the back seat before driving off before the police came to investigate.

 _I better go to one of the temples in case I feel that this could be a Dark Quickening,_ she decided, wanting to avoid a Dark Quickening for the second time in her life because the guy was insanely messed up inside from his past experiences.

-x-

"…This is your bike, Shinji?" Hikari asked, pointing to the minibike Shinji got on outside the school building.

"Yeah," he answered her. "Is it that surprising that I ride one?"

"Surprising?" Toji questioned him. "Shinji, I'd be surprised if you weren't some sort of magnet for attracting the girls."

"It's just to help me get around faster. You can't get everywhere on foot, you know. Plus, I'm striving to be environmentally friendly, so I don't use fossil fuels in this. Just biodiesel or an electrical engine."

"If I didn't like you so much, Shinji," went Kensuke to him, filming his bike, "I'd say you were the weirdest kid I've ever met. But you're actually the most impressive kid I have met."

"If we're on for tonight, I'll call y'all and see if you can join me," Shinji accepted, putting on his helmet and started the engine and rode off on the street. "Bye-bye!"

As the three walked down the same way Shinji rode off, Rei walked past them, giving off an unpleasant vibe that stopped them cold.

"Yikes," went Hikari, clinging onto Toji. "What was that about?"

"She really doesn't like him," he answered her. "She hasn't made one friend since last year…and it's like she hates Shinji…just because she views him as being unpleasant."

"Do you think she knows his secret?" Kensuke suggested.

"No, he hasn't told her anything he hasn't told us about on himself. He confided in us because we saw what happened and we took an oath to guard his secret. He saved my sister's life that day the first attack happened…and I look up to him for that…even though I'm looking down at him."

"Do you two think he'll win?" Hikari asked.

"Just as people used to say that slow and steady wins the race, I believe that size doesn't matter for someone like Shinji to overcome his greatest of challenges," Kensuke answered.

"I hope he prevails," added Toji.

-x-

"Akira?" Takuya gasped, seeing his wife's current state of dress, damp, and her face stained with uncertainty. "Oh, my goodness, Akira, what happened to you out there?"

As she dropped the groceries to the floor as her husband held her, she revealed her first Quickening of the Gathering to him, her fear of amassing another Dark Quickening…and how she spent two hours at the nearest temple and meditated to keep herself in check.

"I'm okay, though," she assured him.

The door behind her opened up…and Shinji came in.

"I'm glad you're here," he told her, going over and hugging her right leg. "I felt the Quickening and that you were the victor."

"That probably makes the number of us left just Quentin, Jose, Takeru, the both of us…and The Demoness," Akira confessed her belief.

"Six of you left?" Takuya spoke, concerned. _Four of you are of the light, one is of the darkness…and one of the gray because he refuses to play the Game._

-x-

"…The principal and teacher were adamant when they said that the Third Child got the message you had your…father send him," Ritsuko explained to Gendo in his office. "Maybe they're out…dealing with this…this thing they're involved in."

Ring! The phone on Gendo's desk rang, and he picked up.

"This is Gendo Ikari," he spoke.

"Shinji gave us the message you sent him at school," he heard Akira's voice. "Before I say what will be the response to your request, the three of us want to know why?"

"My father revealed to me some disturbing information that pertains to each of you that have this…involvement with a power beyond my understanding. Also, Yui and I wish to meet with you on neutral ground for a civil conversation."

"That's all, you say?" He heard Shinji's voice; presumably, this call was involving all three of the people the message was directed towards. "No hidden agenda? No plotting? No deception on your part, whatsoever? Just a civil conversation over a meal?"

"That's right," Gendo answered him.

"Where and when?" He then heard Akira's husband ask.

"The Gurumejueru (Gourmet Jewels), about eight blocks away from the eastern temple. At eight."

Ritsuko was surprised that he would ask them to go to that place. It was one of those middle-class, family-themed restaurants and hadn't gotten much revenue with the Angel attacks. Without much doubt, the place would likely close if things didn't improve for their business.

"We allowed to bring people we know?" Shinji asked.

"You may," Gendo answered.

"We'll be there," Akira informed. "Good day to you."

The call ended and Gendo hung up.

-x-

"…Well, without much doubt, if things keep going the way they are, we might not need Asuka here at all," said Misato to Hyuga on the bridge in Central Dogma.

"Why, because Shinji fought and defeated six Angels on his own?" He asked her.

"Yeah. And…he's really beyond us. Beyond what we had expected of him."

"You sound as though you're terrified of him."

"He carries a tanto, had a jian with him, and was able to rip a table bolted to the floor like it was made of cheaply-made papier-mache. Yeah, he terrifies me. He certainly doesn't like being compared to his parents when I tried to point out a few similarities."

"I'll be honest, Katsuragi, but I don't see any comparison between the boy and his parents. He sounds like he'd rather be like anyone else except them."

"Yeah, but he's having dinner with them tonight. I wonder how that will turn out."

"If nobody does something to set somebody else off? It might go well."

-x-

"…I'm surprised that they agreed to this," Fuyutsuki expressed to Yui as they, Gendo and Takeru arrived at the Gurumejueru at seven-fifty-five, five minutes ahead of schedule. "Immortal? Hard to believe."

"I asked you to shoot me in the back, and you saw me heal, Fuyutsuki-San," Takeru told him. "How are you not convinced?"

"People would kill for immortality."

"But to risk being killed for it? Those that fear death haven't truly embraced life…and those that haven't the faintest clue on how to embrace life are the ones truly dead."

They walked inside the restaurant and looked over towards a large table occupied by several people, one of whom was sitting in a…booster chair.

"There they are," Gendo uttered, and they went over. "You're here."

Shinji turned to face his father, seeing him, his mother, the sub-commander and his paternal grandfather with him, and responded, "You said eight, so we all came at seven-thirty."

"You waited for half an hour?" Yui asked.

"All we really had were bread sticks," answered Takuya.

"And…your invitees?" Fuyutsuki asked, noting their larger party.

"Friends of mine over the years," Akira explained. "Jose Jones."

The dark-skinned bowed his head to them.

"Nice to meet you," he expressed to them.

"Quentin MacLeod and his sister, Clyde."

Beside Jose on his right were the current Highlander and his adopted sister, accompanied by a Great Pyrenees that seemed to be protective of the two.

"Hello," they greeted.

"My classmates, friends and confidants," went Shinji, introducing his trio of invitees. "Hikari Horaki, Toji Suzuhara and Kensuke Aida."

The three teens bowed their heads to the adults.

"Nice to meet you," Yui expressed, seeing four empty seats on the other side of the table.

It was eight minutes after they ordered their chosen meals that they engaged in what was hoped to be a civil conversation.

"So…I take it that each of you knows about this…thing that has been happening for a long time?" Fuyutsuki asked as they waited for their food.

"If you mean the Game, then, yes, we do, sir," said Clyde him. "Pretty much everyone here at this table knows something about the Game…and everyone directly involved in it."

"So…only five of you, including my father and son, are practically ageless?" Gendo asked them.

"That's right," went Jose, setting down his book on the tourist locations around Japan. "Five out of the six left…out of the twenty that arrived for the Gathering. But we've agreed to not fight each other while we're here. I swore on my brothers and sisters to Akira when she called me, and I stick by it."

"We each have a more pressing matter that we're hoping will refrain us from going behind our respective bonds and turning on each other," added Quentin. "Personally, after Akira called me, I was surprised to hear what Shinji had accomplished last night."

"And…just what did you accomplish last night, Shinji?" Takeru asked his grandson.

Before Shinji could answer him, a waitress came by with their orders, and waited until the woman left, two minutes later.

"After we left NERV, we went to see Le Femme Aceline," he explained his bout with the immortal woman. "It turned out she had a power that only seven immortals from the past possessed that could preserve the lives other immortals by simply removing their Quickening…without the need for defeating them through the traditional method. But she never put this power to practical use with anyone she met, preferring the traditional method over the preservation method."

"You…fought her for it?" Yui asked him; she was uncertain if she could question directly whether or not he went and killed another person that was just like him.

"Yes," he answered. "I did."

"So…basically, Shinji…you can now take another immortal's power…without resorting to taking their head?" Takeru questioned. "That is what you're saying, isn't it?"

"Yes, that's right."

"Then…could you take mine, please?"

There was a silence around the table. Most were in unseen awe over the plead of one immortal to be stripped of their immortality.

"Are you sure that's what you want?" Gendo asked him.

"It gets me out of the Game, I don't have to fight anyone for the Prize…and those that still want to play the Game won't have to fight me for something I no longer have."

"I meant to ask each of you of this offer," said Shinji, indicating that he didn't want to fight any of Akira's friends or Akira herself. "Though, I won't force you to reconsider or anything."

Even Akira had to think about it. If she forfeited her Quickening to Shinji, she'd be mortal again, able to move on with Takuya, to grow old with him, even have children with him. She wouldn't have had to repeat this part of her life where she met someone new, decades or centuries later, and fall in love and end up having to bury them after watching them die.

"But that'll leave only you to face The Demoness, and she's a sick-twisted mother," said Jose. "No offense to the real mothers here."

"When he says that, he's referring to the fact that the woman in question is, beyond any reasonable doubt, evil incarnate," explained Quentin. "No morality, no remorse. I doubt she was ever loved by anyone in her past."

"Uh, just how old is this woman?" Yui asked them. "This…Demoness?"

"The Demoness," Akira corrected her on the name of the immortal woman, "and the thing of it is…none of us left are sure how old she is. But when you sort through the memories of other immortals that have faced her in the past, you get only a glimpse of the years in which they saw her. Even they weren't sure how old she was when they met her."

"One going theory, though, is that she's been alive since before the creation of the Holy Bible and its variations," said Quentin. "Basically, before Anno Domini…and before the one called Christ. Possibly older than the ancient civilizations that we know of."

"If she's that old," went Hikari, "then she's…really ancient."

"The oldest, known immortal was reported to be over five-thousand years old before he died," stated Akira. "Some believe that the ancient immortals…are often very powerful, almost invincible."

"God-like?" Gendo asked her.

"No," answered Shinji. "Immortals are nowhere near the pantheon of deities. You can read up on deities and what they're capable of, but you can never be one. Not unless you're comfortable with being a shadow of a deity. You can wander around in their shadows, in the darkness…but you will never get to bask in the light or be recognized as a real one."

"And how can you be so sure of that?"

"If people became gods," expressed Toji, intervening, "what exactly would they represent as gods? What would they be responsible for as gods, and what would their intentions be toward others?"

"Right on, Suzuhara-San," went Jose, supportive of his response.

"Yay," added Clyde.

"Yet, this thing you're all fighting each other for, this…Prize… Couldn't it make you a god?" Gendo questioned; whatever it was, he had hoped there could be a way to gain it for himself.

"Maybe," went Akira, "but what good would it amount to?"

"The possibility of a new kind of tyranny," said Takeru and Takuya.

"Which isn't good…for anyone," Takuya finished on his own.

"Good immortal, a grand future," Hikari stated. "Bad immortal, an eternity in the darkness."

"But…who decides who's good or bad?" Yui asked.

"One's own sense of morality," answered Shinji. "You don't go into someone else's house and start trashing their possessions and hurting their loved ones unless you're just looking to pick a fight with them, even when there's a possibility that they're not the type you can expect to overcome."

"Basically, one with a death wish," went Kensuke, clarifying what Shinji meant.

"Yes."

Whoosh. Suddenly, all five immortals went straight-faced and quiet, each with a look of irritation and concern on them.

"Uh, Shinji?" Hikari questioned.

"Quentin?" Clyde added, noticing that her brother was very tense.

"She's here," said Jose, his chopsticks left upright in his bowl of ramen.

"Who?" Fuyutsuki asked.

"The Demoness," answered Takeru, frowning, his second egg roll hanging from his mouth.

"By the bar," stated Shinji. "She's watching us."

Yui and Gendo looked over at the bar…and saw a woman sitting at the left end of the counter, nursing what looked like their third drink, dressed in a black and red dress and wearing an unusual choker on their neck. The woman seemed odd to make their son and the other immortals at their table tense.

"That's her?" Gendo asked, unsure if he should even have any concerns about the woman.

"Yes, that's her," said Akira to him. "The Demoness."

"But…she doesn't look dangerous," Yui confessed.

"They never do," said Jose.

Then, despite their verbal distance from her, The Demoness turned her head to face their table, letting them see her expression was one of cruelty mixed in with a seductive quality.

"Oh," Hikari gasped quietly, clinging onto Toji's left shoulder.

Clyde did the same with Quentin.

"If it weren't for her name and what you guys said about her," went Kensuke, "I'd say she's hot."

The Demoness then got up and downed the last of her drink before walking over.

"I take it back," the otaku shuddered, fearful. "She's not hot. Definitely not hot."

"I know we all agreed not to fight against each other," Shinji told the other immortals, "but that agreement doesn't really apply to The Demoness, does it?"

"No, Shinji," said Akira, reaching down to her right side, where her tube case was for her sword. "It doesn't apply to her."

"No one makes a move unless she does," Jose uttered, reaching into his jacket for the hilt of his sword.

Takeru merely stayed quiet, unwilling to get involved. If he had to do something, he would take the mortals to the temple nearby; he swore to never fight any immortals and he refused to break his oath.

As Shinji reached down his left side for his tanto, The Demoness uttered, "I'm not here to fight any of you. If I wanted to fight, I would've brought out my sword, which I don't have on me right now. Even if I wanted to fight you, the only one of you that would rival me is less than half your sizes."

"If that was supposed to be some kind of joke, none of us are laughing," went Gendo to her, and she looked at him.

Then, she looked at Yui…and then back at Shinji, as if seeing a resemblance between the three.

"Your parents, I presume?" She asked him.

"Unfortunately," he responded.

"A pity for them. I can't imagine you being their son. Just looking at them and hearing your father's voice tells me enough of the type of people they are."

"Is that so?" Takeru questioned.

"Just three words, one for each person, to describe their fates, past and future."

"I doubt you know anything about one's fate…other than being the one to decide it against their will," Jose told her.

The Demoness looked at Yui before saying, "Deceiver."

This sparked Akira's curiosity. What had Yui Ikari done (beyond the obvious acts of vileness) to be called a deceiver?

Looking at Gendo again, The Demoness declared, "Disgraceful."

This word reminded Takeru of his own disgrace towards his family by leaving them without revealing the truth to why.

"And as for you, Shinji, the word that most suits your relationship with your parents… I think it's pronounced in your native tongue as… Gisei," The Demoness informed him, which caused several of the people at the table to feel disrespected.

"Hey," went Akira to her. "Watch the way you speak to him."

"You know not what you say, woman," added Gendo, though his response could've been more for his and Yui's own defense than it could've ever been for Shinji's.

"He's not…" Yui expressed, but her words never made it out of her mouth.

"He's not what?" The Demoness asked her. "Please, speak honestly. There's no truth without honesty."

But Yui didn't say anything more.

"Whether that's all I am to them or not," Shinji responded to the immortal woman's choice of words, "it doesn't mean I'm defined by them any more than I could be defined by what they chose to do with their lives. Their lives, not mine. I exist separate from what they do…and am not tied to whatever fate awaits them at the end of the long road that is mortality. We branched off into different directions a long time ago…and the route I took is all the more vast than the ones they took."

"Is that so?"

"It is. I'm not big on any aspect of science or politics that they're on, so I could care less about what lines they may have crossed that will get them into trouble that's bound to be far worse than anything I could imagine happening, which is why, even as I invoke these choice of words, I don't get my hopes up about the three of us being together at the end of everything. I'd be lying to myself, deluding myself into believing that such a thing is possible…when deep down, it is not. I weigh my present state with relationships that have a tangible meaning, such as those I have with my three classmates, my grandparents. I try not to ask for much than what my heart longs for. Even immortals can find solace in the company of those they care for, even if there's a fearful chance of having to watch them grow old and leave you. I'll still be weighed down by them."

"You know what's silly about your pompous belief?" The Demoness asked him. "I actually believe you…and that's the coldest of truths to come from me."

She then looked at Fuyutsuki, who seemed uncomfortable with her presence.

"Hmm…this elder is one that seems conflicted by old desires and regrets," she stated. "And yet, despite his internal torture, he still prefers his end to have people around him, no matter how stained they are with sin. And a secret that is his disgust with the one who disgraces all for his own gain."

Fuyutsuki went wide-eyed, as though this immortal woman had just read his mind.

"What is this that only a handful of you at this table know of and keep secret from the rest of society?" The Demoness asked, turning to face Yui and Gendo again. "Something that relates to what happened fifteen years ago…that wasn't caused by a meteorite hitting the South Pole. Oh, I can still relive those days of unrest and torture that were the result of an act that took so many lives. Fifteen years ago was many times worse than my previous experiences over the ages. London being razed to the ground, the Black Plague that claimed millions of people, the Sack of Rome, the Egyptian plagues. Hardly an act of the divine…but mainly of mortal hands that think they're in control…when mortals are just as expendable as the wealth they hoard away is."

"You mean Second Impact," went Quentin to her.

"Second Impact, huh? If you buy into the beliefs of the meteorites that hit the planet with enough force to overwhelm places and bring ruination, extinction to several organisms. But that's only if you believe in that bull. There was no meteorite fifteen years ago. Everything that happened to create the symphony of mayhem and unrest…was all the doing of mortals that wanted to do something without even asking for permission."

"And…what did they want to do?" Toji asked her.

"Renounce the old ways…by renouncing their status as mortals…to replace the deities that made them. But you can't replace any divine authority, no matter how hard you try, by sacrificing the lives of everyone on the planet. Kill one life…and you're nothing more than a murderer. Kill one-hundred, a well-experienced killer. One-million, a monarch. All, and a god of loneliness is all you become."

"You…you don't know what you're saying," they all heard Yui finally say to her.

"And would you know?" She asked her back. "Would you really know? Or are you only capable of deceit? In either way, there's little chance that everyone will follow your beliefs. I know I wouldn't. Even your son knows he can't follow you."

Suddenly, all eyes were on Shinji, who didn't say anything about it.

"Then he's defiant towards his parents," said Gendo.

"We're all defiant towards our parents or guardians," The Demoness expressed. "Some are just more so than others. Can you really tell someone else to do something for you…and not expect them to question it…or show hesitation, even refusing to do so? If he has more reason to be defiant towards you and his mother…then it's only because you threatened the lives of his grandparents at one point before you discovered his immortality. Really, threatening an immortal's relationships? That's a line even I wouldn't cross until the time was right for me to do so…which hasn't come to pass just yet."

It felt like every time anyone spoke to her…or whenever she looked at them, it was like she was able to know all these things they either said or did, as if she were some sort of psychic.

"Just what is it that you want, The Demoness?" Fuyutsuki asked her.

"Just what every other immortal wanted before falling to me," she answered. "The Prize…and everything else that comes with it. Everything else…all at once."

"Care to elaborate?" Kensuke asked her.

"No. But you can use your imagination. What does anyone want more than anything else in existence? I am one of many tastes that come with desire."

"If someone like you won the Game, you'd be an apocalyptic outcome from which there can be no salvation," said Quentin to her.

"But I haven't won the Game, Highlander. Not yet. As long as there's more than one immortal, the Game is still in play…and the Prize has not been claimed. And you can't beat me."

"My brother could beat you if he wanted to," went Clyde to her, standing up for her adopted brother.

"Grr," their dog growled.

"Your faith in your…brother is treasured, but I'm simply stating a truth," The Demoness responded. "I am the deadliest of the immortals. I am from an age that people of today can't even begin to comprehend because they have no understanding of the shadows of the past, which hide many secrets. Each of you…will always be under me in terms of age and power, which includes the power to know what each of you have done in your past…just by looking at you."

"We'll see about that," went Shinji, "at another time."

She looked at him, enticed by his determination.

"Before I go, I will say this to you. If it ever comes down to you and I at the end, I do hope the battle is most gratifying. It has been ages since I've had a lengthy fight with someone that actually stood a chance against me." She told him, and then bowed her head. "Pleasant evenings."

She turned and walked away.

"The Demoness," Shinji stopped her, which surprised her as he turned to face her. "Fukyu Ikari."

She turned back and asked, "What does that mean?"

"Immortal Anchor…Immortal Ikari," he answered her. "Every immortal has their designation…and this is mine."

"Immortal Ikari, huh? I like the sound of it. It has a heavy meaning. See you around."

She then walked out the door and down the street.

"Yikes," Toji sighed. "You were right, Shinji. She is scary."

"I still can't imagine her being anything like you and your grandmother," added Hikari, still clinging to Toji's arm. "There was something just not right about her."

"There was a lot that wasn't right with her," said Jose. "The deadliest of us, indeed. Intimidating, cruel, no hesitation. She has all the necessary traits that make her a deadly warrior among women."

Fuyutsuki didn't ask, but he could guess that all of the immortals at the table were frightened to various degrees by The Demoness, barely able to keep their fear of her in check. Even he was afraid of her, and he had only met her this evening.

"And you five can't just go at her at once?" Yui questioned.

"That would be against one of the Rules, ma'am," Kensuke told her.

"The Rules?" Gendo questioned.

"It's as I've told you before," went Takeru to them. "Immortals have to follow the Rules when it comes to the Game, one of them is to never fight more than one other immortal at once. It must always be one-on-one."

"I saw Quentin go up against an immortal a few days ago," Shinji explained. "I could only watch as he fought his adversary. I couldn't help him, no matter what. Even if I wanted to, it'd be a violation of the Rules. Thankfully, he survived his fight and defeated the other immortal."

"The only exception to that rule is when an immortal foundling is attacked during their grace period," Akira explained further. "If you're immortal and you choose to attack an inexperienced immortal that has yet to fully master their newfound power at the tutelage of their immortal teacher, then a one-on-one battle doesn't apply."

"You talk as though it has happened to you before," Takeru expressed.

"It was I that was attacked by an enemy immortal during such a grace period," Shinji revealed. "If you read the news article about missing or kidnapped children, a man that had his head cut off and a report about a woman that showed up and saved them, you'll find only most of that story is true."

"You were attacked by an immortal during the time Akira was teaching you how to defend yourself?" Toji spoke. "That's messed up."

"It didn't end well for him in the end. I guess you could call it an adrenaline-induced panic attack. He became my first beheading in the Game. Not an experience I would wish on anyone."

As much as Yui wanted to talk these other immortals down and have Shinji walk away from this Game, or just take a chance and have him confined somewhere where they couldn't find him or hurt him for his head and whatever power he had amassed over his short period of immortality, but got the feeling that doing so would just be another violation of the Rules they lived by. Even if she wanted to protect Shinji, what The Demoness said about Shinji being unable to follow her beliefs and his own revelation that he couldn't delude himself on any hopes that he and his parents reconciling would ever happen hit her deeply. It was, even though he seemed to have aged very little since the day she went into the Eva, he wasn't the same boy she left behind to ensure a bright future for all of mankind.

"They say the first Quickening from your enemy is always the most painful," went Jose to him. "Did it hurt for you?"

"Yes, it did," he answered, "but Akira helped me to get over it."

"Yet, you still play this…Game," uttered Gendo. "You didn't…turn away like your grandfather did."

Shinji looked up at his father and responded, "Had there been another alternative to being made a victim allover again, it would be living on holy ground for the rest of one's semblance of eternity. However, that option wasn't for me. It's a way station for immortals, a safety net to avoid conflict during times where you can't afford to endanger others present. But in due time, the Game will end, and all places deemed holy ground won't be needed by immortals as refuge…because there won't be any more immortals. Question, though: Since when do you care whether I walk away from something or not? It's not like you to show any real interest in what I do."

"Yeah, he's right," added Takuya. "It's just another fact of the life of an immortal that is stressed upon towards mortals. There is no control over what they do. You can live with them, you can work alongside them, even marry them if you're willing to spend the rest of your life with them…but you can't make them do something against their volition."

"Trying to control one that can't die is against the Rules?" Toji asked him.

"No, but it's against the law to enslave someone else to do your bidding," answered Jose, who was familiar with the rule of tyranny and enslavement, which led to his death and resurrection.

"Did something of that sort…happen to you, Jose-San?" Hikari asked him.

"Yes, ma'am. I've been alive for three-hundred-seventeen years. I was a slave before I became immortal. It was Akira that helped me obtain freedom two years after I became immortal."

"I was traveling to places unknown to me in order to expand my insight and knowledge," Akira explained how she came to meet with Jose. "If you draw such things from only one place, it becomes nothing more than rigid and stale, able to be questioned by others that may know more than you do."

-x-

As she returned to her hotel suite and collapsed in a nearby chair, The Demoness sighed as she recalled the memories of her past…before everything changed for her. It was only in her past…where everything felt so peaceful…before she fell in love with the chaos that befell her. And yet, to find herself surrounded by so many people that were just of these miserable generations that didn't even come close to echoing the echoes and shadows of the people she met back in her blissful ignorance.

 _Immortal Ikari,_ she thought of Shinji, his petite stature, his innocent facade and understandable need for stable and meaningful relationships. _Not many immortals…or even simple mortals…catch my interest like this child immortal has._

The last memory she had before being forced to wander the planet for eternity…was of her home crumbling to the abyss of time…and of her people screaming their final screams as buildings fell upon them and smashed their corpses. She was the only survivor.

 _To win the Prize is my destiny, my desire,_ she thought on the Game, _and I will do anything and everything to win._

She got up and grabbed her sword. Knowing what the boy had done just by looking at him, she knew that Shinji had obtained the power of one of the Seven Salvation Immortals…while she had the power of the other six, meaning that there was a large chance that he would eliminate the other immortals at that dinner party by taking their power without taking their heads, leaving only the two of them left. She didn't really care, as it would remove other obstacles. The less immortals there were, the less time it would take to finish the Game.

 _In the end, only one of us will claim all that we're entitled,_ she thought, kneeling on the rug and holding her sword up high. _The Prize…will afford the victor all that they could possibly desire. The power to rule all people, the power to maintain one's empire, even life over death. What a feeling… What a feeling this is…to be so close…and yet so far from the goal's conclusion._

-x-

"…Yet, none of you can just…find the means to coexist with these Angels?" Hikari questioned Fuyutsuki, hoping to change the subject from the immortals to what NERV was up to.

"It's hard to do so when they just show up and attack," the elder explained.

"Sorry, Hikari, but the chances of these so-called Angels coexisting with people is little more than a fantasy," Shinji told her. "One of them had the arrogance to single me out."

Fuyutsuki was them reminded of how Shinji viewed protecting only half the people of NERV with a sense of irony because he had a desire for the truth that they withheld from him. But was also reminded that he had given up on them ever telling him anything legit.

"Yet, it described itself as having an honor code to live by," went Yui. "It wouldn't go after anyone else…until after it defeated you, Shinji."

"Live by the code…and die by the code," he responded to her. "To go against one's code…is to be capable of anything beyond that of which one is capable of."

"And what is your code?" Gendo asked him.

""To never engage an inevitable conflict with whoever's after you unless you have no other alternatives, to keep the conflict from spilling out onto the public and dragging in innocent people that needn't know what is going on so long as it doesn't put their lives at risk, and to never seek a foe unless they're out seeking you."

"That's well-spoken, Shinji," praised Takeru to his grandson. "Quite the samurai."

Of course, if something happened to Akira, Shinji would've referred to himself as a ronin because he had the greatest amount of respect and admiration towards his ancestral grandmother.

"Thank you."

However, Akira recalled the fourth and fifth times Shinji got into conflict with enemy immortals. It had been almost two years ago…and on the same night, as well; some crazy pair had heard about the Japanese story of a little boy surviving a stab to the heart without any major need for surgery…and came looking for Shinji, a whole week before she considered declaring his grace period over, that she had imparted all her teachings to him and he could protect himself against his adversaries. And Shinji was able to do something no other immortal had ever done for her.

"What do you intend to do after the Game is over?" Yui asked them.

"Presuming that we all can walk away from it with our heads still attached to our shoulders?" Quentin questioned. "I know what I'm doing. Heading back to Scotland where it all began for me over three centuries ago. Maybe rebuild one its old castles."

"Return to my loft in New York and resume helping inner city youths to keep them from doing things that they end up paying for in the worst of ways," Jose added, "and probably buy a small yacht. Nothing really fancy. Just a little self-indulgence."

"Those are interesting plans there, gentlemen," said Toji. "What of you, Mr. Nagisa? What are your plans?"

Takeru sighed heavily; he hadn't thought of anything beyond relinquishing his immortality and just trying mend whatever relationships he could before he died at a later time in the future.

"Flat beer would seem nice," he joked a little.

"Eh-heh-heh," Shinji chuckled at him. "That's some big plans there."

"Yeah… I guess I don't think much on what to do with my time beyond the things that need to be resolved…if they can."

"Ahh…" Shinji then yawned; even immortals needed sleep half the time, and Shinji was no exception to this state of being. "Whenever you're ready to perform the method, I'm all for it."

Takeru then finished the rest of his beef broth in three gulps.

"Is whenever everyone is finished feasible with you? I don't want to rush them." He suggested.

"Yes, of course," the boy responded as he got up. "I need to go…consult the plumber."

As he left, Clyde also got up and claimed she needed to powder her nose, following Shinji.

"Um, your sister is very sweet, MacLeod-Sama," Hikari expressed her honesty to the Highlander.

"Is it alright to ask you…how you two first met?" Toji asked.

The table's remaining gathering of adults and young teens were quiet; it seemed like a personal question, yet asked to someone that had been around for a few centuries.

"Sure," Quentin answered the young man. "It was a few years after Second Impact. I had been involved in a search and rescue operation to find survivors of the small and violent outbreaks that occurred around Scotland, Egypt, Africa and the smaller areas around South America. It was in Scotland that I met Clyde and Gaul. She was four when she lost her parents and sister to a man that lost his farm. I was taking them with me to my apartment when the same guy that attacked her family came back to finish her off. Apparently, he couldn't afford to leave any witnesses or survivors, regardless of whether or not they could even do anything against him. He tried to shoot her through me. That's how Clyde found out about the shadow world of immortals."

"Oh, dear," Hikari shuddered as she covered her mouth.

"One of the few things that make having immortality worth living for around people. The guy wouldn't stop…so I stopped him. It was either him or my sister that would see the next day…and I chose for Clyde to see the next day."

"Good move," said Takuya to him, supportive of his decision to protect a little girl from a bad man.

"Not among my best decisions, but in the end, if I had to relive that day a second time…I would've made the same choice. I've seen enough good people suffer because of some sort of corruption."

Meanwhile, in the men's room, Shinji had finished relieving himself and vacated the stall to wash his hands. He jumped up onto the counter and sat beside the sink to apply soap and wash it off.

The door to the room up…and Clyde stepped inside.

"Uh, Clyde, you're not supposed to be in here," he told her; if the ladies' room was faulty for the time being, he would've ignored the fact that any female would have to make do with using the men's room.

"I just wanted to ask you something," she told him. "You're not going to go after Quentin, are you?"

"Honestly, I don't have any intention on fighting him," he revealed to the girl. "Even though the Game stresses that there must be only of us left in the end, I didn't know about your relationship with Quentin until he mentioned you and Gaul, so I can't and won't cross a line that takes someone's new family away."

"Then…can't you just remove him from the Game?"

"Not unless he asks me to. A Quickening of the sort I now have the power to do requires the voluntary assistance of the immortal that wants to retire from the Game. The only reason I would be able to take away my immortal Grandfather's Quickening…is because he wants to get rid of it and be mortal again."

"So, I'd have to convince my brother to give up his immortality if I wanted him to get out of the Game and not risk getting killed, then?"

"So long as he chooses to do so willingly. You're concerned for him."

"I'm afraid for him, too. He saved my life from a bad man that took my parents and big sister. I'm grateful for having met him. He's the only family I have left in this life…and I don't want to lose him."

Shinji could sympathize with Clyde; he had Akira and Takuya, and he valued them to a much higher degree than his own parents…whom he resented deeply due to their past actions and in-progress objectives. Truth be told, he depended on Akira and Takuya to keep from becoming cynical and succumbing to the negative or darker qualities of his character. It was a constant struggle for him every time, see-sawing between his morality and strive to maintain a semblance of balance between the small speck of light in his soul and the darkness of his background that he felt stemmed from his parents and their own hidden sense of cruelty towards others and the world. It was also why he was trying to believe that the power of the mysterious Prize could be the solution to the world's so-called Third Impact fear from being made a reality; if the Prize was a way to keep the world from ending, it could mean a real future rather than the one he needed to keep from happening.

 _Nothing that has transpired ever since the Second Impact ball was set in motion has been worth any amount of pain, suffering and death for the world to come undone just so someone can remake it,_ he thought, feeling that Clyde really loved Quentin, immortal or not, just like Takuya loved Akira, immortal or not. _Nobody has such a right to massacre what's left of the world or the people just to fulfill some damn belief in some damn prophecy that nobody else knows about. Not a soul. Not some rotten father or watch-only mother, not some titanic creatures that barely relate to humans…not even an immortal child that never got to grow up because of his stupid disgrace of a maternal aunt._

Shinji had become bitter, but this was only because of a choice he had just decided upon. Right now, for him, what he really wanted didn't matter if everyone could possibly suffer because of a handful of individuals that sought an undesirable conclusion for the world. If the Prize could ensure a better future than what people like his parents were after, then he had to make sure that The Demoness didn't win…but he wouldn't cross the line he marked and take out the other immortals here.

"Shinji?" Clyde asked, seeing his hands glow pinkish. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he responded to her, ending his train of thought, and his hands returned to normal. "I'm okay."

-x-

"…Okay, I have to be honest with myself," said Jose to everyone else at the table, "but I get the constant feeling that Shinji…has it out for you two due to an issue or series of issues that don't seem to be getting resolved."

Shinji's friends and confidants and Takeru looked at Gendo and Yui, whom Jose was addressing, and whom were silent.

"You'd be right about that, Jose," Akira told him. "It's…a delicate issue…and Shinji's…"

She couldn't find the right words to describe the personal issue to her friend. How could she explain to him that her most recent descendant had two parents that wanted to screw up the world based on some crazy prophecy that would put the fate of everyone who could still die on his shoulders?

"Don't tell me," he uttered, deciding to take a shot at the problem. "It relates to exactly what The Demoness said? She made it sound like something is up. Why else would she called Gendo disgraceful and Yui a deceiver and then call Shinji a… Well, I don't really know what it was she called him, but you were the most offended by it."

Jose wouldn't deny that he was bad with his Japanese, but the sight of those that understood it fluently were seriously put off by the meaning behind the word.

"She called him," went Takeru, unable to keep quiet about the disrespect Shinji was given by The Demoness, "a sacrifice. Basically, a scapegoat, an offering."

Hikari, Toji and Kensuke's facial expressions were of disgust.

Akira and Takuya's were of resentment towards the designation.

"I wouldn't want anyone calling my kid some crazy and pathetic thing like that," Jose responded. "I'd want them to repent in the harshest of ways."

"I'm not a believer of certain meanings behind certain phrases or terms," went Quentin, who was also offended, though it was more towards the Ikaris than The Demoness, "but I feel The Demoness is more dangerous than these two could be, regardless of whether or not it'll be now or in the possible future…and she needs to get her cap peeled way back."

Yui and Gendo were unfamiliar with what he just said, having never understood any of this…street language that existed.

"I mean you immortals no disrespect," Hikari spoke up, "but I believe the only one that can resolve this conflict you have with The Demoness…is Shinji."

"What makes you believe in that?" Gendo questioned her. "He's…tiny."

"We've seen him spar with Akira," Kensuke defended. "He might not look it, but Shinji's a lot stronger than he seems. How else could he defeat six Angels…and six immortals that came after him? Akira taught him everything he knows. And…he has people he wants to protect."

"Not to mention that you shouldn't underestimate someone because of their size," added Toji. "And it seems like The Demoness is more interested in facing him than the rest of you that are left."

"It's mostly because Shinji is a child immortal," Quentin explained. "They're rare among us because they don't live for long. Easy to find, even easier to take out. But Shinji's extremely rare; he's the only child immortal of this century. Only immortal for four years. Some barely survive just one year."

"How many of these…immortal children have you encountered in your life, MacLeod-San?" Yui asked him, curious.

"Excluding your son?" He responded. "Only four."

"Oh, my," Hikari gasped, feeling that Shinji was more lucky to have Akira than ever before.

"You really wanna put everyone's fate in his hands?" Gendo questioned.

"But isn't that what you were already doing?" Toji stated. "You have him and another fourteen-year-old operating giant robots, but he's the only one that's been in on the conflict."

"Just how much of what NERV has done has Shinji confided in you three?" Fuyutsuki asked them.

"Only what he has chosen to share with us, sir," answered Hikari. "He doesn't want for us for to worry too much about him. Not since that time in the robot when he fought the creature that looked like a pink squid."

Yui could see that, despite being somewhat involved in knowing what NERV has done, Shinji put their safety above most others in his priorities. Maybe more so than his parents'.

Akira finished her cup of jasmine tea…and expressed, "Shinji would suggest to anyone after him that they could negate the inevitable conflict by simply walking away, preferring to avoid violence due to the sense of pacifism; any measure of discord, whether or not it's inflicted on or by him, is unacceptable. But The Demoness is in this to win it. Everyone's an enemy, every place that isn't deemed holy ground a battlefield…and everyday a day that could spell certain doom for whoever she chooses to go after that is immortal. She embraces the Game. There's no chance of bargaining with her. There's no hope of reasoning with her. She's devoid of any capacity for remorse, fear…even pity is nonexistent within her."

"Couldn't you kill her?" Yui asked, which caught everyone off guard.

"I doubt it. She's older than I am…and much stronger. I don't say this often, but after we came to Tokyo-3, the power balance between Shinji and I has shifted more in his favor due to his Angel-endowed Quickenings. He and The Demoness must be almost equal in strength."

"An ancient, wicked woman…and a young, pint-size youth," uttered Takeru. "I put my faith in Shinji to stop her."

"Likewise," added Fuyutsuki, meaning so.

A minute of silence was shared between them by the time Shinji and Clyde returned from the restroom. The immortal boy noticed that only Hikari had yet to finish her meal.

"Did anything of interest happen while we were gone?" He asked Akira.

"A lot of talk about you, The Demoness and the Game," she explained.

"And what the Prize might or might not be?"

"I know all that I need to know about the Prize," said Takeru to them, sharing what his extended time meditating on holy ground had revealed to him. "If one of you wins the Game, good things will come about in the rewritten future…but if she wins the Game, everything we know, all that we hold dear or take for granted…will come undone however she sees fit."

"Peace and freedom for all humankind," Quentin spoke of what seemed to be the only choices they faced in their situation, "total domination or total obliteration. To choose one is to choose either the pen, the sword…or the end."

Hikari then finished the rest of her teriyaki chicken and expressed, "I choose the pen."

"The pen," added Toji.

"Yay, the pen," went Clyde, as well, even though she barely understood the concept.

-x-

Even though it was late out, Shinji and Takeru still wanted to perform the Quickening that was to remove the latter immortal from the Game without killing him…and everyone needed to see how the former immortal was capable of such a method. As far as they knew from Shinji, it required two immortals to be holding the same blade, so they would be using Shinji's tanto.

"Are you afraid?" Shinji asked his immortal grandfather as they stood outside NERV HQ, away from the city to negate the potential property damage a Quickening would inevitably cause, standing atop a cut tree's trunk so that he would be of a close-enough height with him.

"Of dying? Of growing old again? Those, I can live with." Takeru expressed, turning away to look at Gendo and Yui. "For me, immortality has been my bane going back forty years. I'm actually elated. Thank you for doing this, Shinji."

Unsheathing his tanto, the boy held it up and responded, "Thank me when you have a cut that doesn't heal instantly. But there's something else you should know: If you die of unnatural causes again, there's a good chance you will be returned to being a participant of the Game. You'd be immortal, all over again, and we'll have to do this…all over again."

"Great. I'd rather get sick and old than get shot at again. So…set me free, please."

Takeru then placed his hands on the tanto and felt a strange aura emanating from his grandson.

"May the knowledge and experience of immortals, past and present, now be shared!" Shinji shouted, and the ground around the two shook as electrical energy shot up around them.

The water from the artificial lake beside the base began churning as a small twister formed, sucking in some of it and sending dispersed droplets scattering everywhere within reach.

"Whoa!" Toji gasped as Hikari held onto him.

"Un-freaking-believable!" Kensuke expressed.

"This feels just like a Quickening," Akira stated, "but it's different. No fury, no vengeance, only life."

Yui couldn't believe that Shinji was able to do something like this! That people with immortality could do things like this! It almost made the purpose of the Evangelion being eternal proof of mankind's existence seem pathetic because there were people far older than everyone else on the planet.

Gendo was left astonished by the display of power as his father tightened his grip on Shinji's tanto, as if trying to keep from being sent flying.

Creak! A crack in the artificial ceiling above the Geo-Front formed.

Flash! A bolt of lightning struck the tanto and surrounded the two immortals with more electrical energy as fire encircled them in a ring on the ground.

Then, seconds after it had started, the ring of fire ceased, along with the twister and churning water. The lake returned to normal and the electrical display of power ended.

Shinji and Takeru, surrounded by scorched earth, appeared completely unharmed. Even the tanto was undamaged by the Quickening, despite being struck by lightning.

"Uh," Takeru groaned as he let go of the small blade and staggered back a bit, appearing fatigued.

Shinji fell onto his back on the trunk as his tanto fell to the ground, appearing just as exhausted by the unusual Quickening they had. He had seen and heard all that his grandfather had ever experienced in his past up to now, as though he were actually there when they all happened; Takeru didn't deny anything he either said or did, no matter how silly or whatever else it might've been.

"Shinji?" Akira called out to him, and he looked up from the sight of the lake to her. "Are you alright?"

He nodded that he was fine.

"Check him," he requested, slowly raising his left hand up, pointing to Takeru.

Takeru, who had fallen on his bottom, raised his right hand up in front of him, seeing a small cut on the palm. He didn't feel pain, but what put a smile on his face was that he didn't feel the cut regenerate; if he had been immortal, the injury, however minor, however major, would've healed instantly.

"Are you alright, Takeru?" Yui asked him as Quentin helped him onto his feet.

"More than alright," he expressed, undeniably happy. "Mortal…once more. Thank you, Shinji. Thank you very much."

-x-

"…So, he spared his biological grandfather the painful fate of being beheaded," went The Demoness, looking out her suite's window at the city outside, sensing the aftermath of a Quickening. "No matter. Now, there are only five of us left. Shinji Ikari, the Immortal Ikari, I look forward to seeing you again."

-x-

"I never knew you could experience that much pain in a Quickening like that," Hikari confessed as Akira and Takuya dropped her off at her home. "I mean, I saw Shinji in one before, but not like that. Not like that."

Akira, who was carrying Shinji in her arms as he was out cold, responded, "Each one has similarities, but each is always different for the immortal that receives them. They bestow all the power and knowledge ever accumulated in their lives. All their secrets, every last one of their identities used over the ages, all for the victor to know."

"Sounds like someone with a eidetic memory that has been through every form of conflict that has ever been experienced…and recalls all that ever happened. How do you keep from going mad with all that information in your head?"

"Have you ever watched that cartoon made in America called _Avatar_?" Takuya asked. "It's kinda like that for each immortal, except without the glowing eyes and past lives. The knowledge is stored away until they decide to use it."

"My little sister probably watches it. Well, thank you again for dinner tonight. I hope Shinji feels better tomorrow." Hikari told them as she walked into her apartment. "Good night."

The couple walked back to their Prius with the sleeping Shinji and drove back home.

"Do you think Takeru will be okay now that he's mortal again?" Takuya asked his wife as they drove down the empty street.

"So long as he doesn't die of unnatural causes, he'll be fine," she answered. "Did you see his happiness at being rid of his immortality? It was the best thing to ever happen to him ever since he became immortal. He can deal with simple situations like before."

They reached their building and carried Shinji into his room.

 _He didn't want any of the difficulties that came with being immortal,_ Akira thought about Takeru, undressing Shinji and putting one of his over-sized shirts on before putting under his blankets. _He hated it for a long time, even praying to any deity to save him from what could have been an eternity of living without end. He lost nearly everyone he loved. Maybe as he gets his bearings, he'll be able to move on._

As she vacated his room, she sighed as another thought came to mind about the Quickening she witnessed. The removal of one's immortality without removing their head restored much of what had been lost to them the second they died. While they lost their limited invulnerability, enhanced strength, speed and accelerated healing and immunity to diseases, they regained their ability to age, to grow old, get sick, have children, to die so long as it was through natural causes. And as unpredictable as mortality had always been to countless lives, mortality was a grand blessing.

 _Not everyone is meant to understand that living many lives, doing the same thing, time and again, for generations…does not always compare to just one life lived with the people you love._ She thought as she and Takuya went into their room to retire. _Maybe it's time I set down my sword and forfeit my claim to the Prize. I can't really see myself doing anything with it. I don't really even want it._

"You're awfully quiet, Akira," Takuya said to her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she told him. "Just thinking about something."

"About what?"

"About stepping aside."

"Stepping aside?"

"I've been immortal since before the rise of the Yamato Dynasty. That's a long time to consider an eternity. Who wants to live until they're thirty centuries old? Not this woman."

To be continued…

A/N: Wow, I think this is the longest chapter so far in this story. What do you think?


	12. Passing the Sword

Creation began on 08-22-17

Creation ended on 11-13-17

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Immortal Ikari: Passing the Sword

"…His father really gave up his immortality?" Ritsuko asked Fuyutsuki the next morning, wanting to know much about how last night's dinner meeting went.

"He was relieved to be rid of it," the sub-commander answered her. "And Shinji's got some competition from several individuals in the same boat as him… Or rather, he has competition from just one woman that is anything but subtle."

"A woman called Demoness?"

"The Demoness. They stressed out the 'The' part of her name…if that's truly even her name."

"And you were each intimidated by her presence?"

"Shinji's friends, his grandparents, the grandmother's friends, whom were from different time periods going back over three-four-hundred years, were all intimidated by her. They had agreed not to fight each other, but they weren't going to refrain from dealing with her if she tried something."

Meanwhile, in Gendo's office, said man and his wife were engaged in a conversation of their own about last night.

"…The Demoness said that she could know everything a person has done in their past by looking at them," said Yui to him.

"And that she was from an age that we couldn't comprehend due to not knowing everything about what occurred in the past," he added. "This implies that she truly is older than everyone else involved in the Game that they're playing for this Prize."

"She looked at us like she really knew what we did years ago. She likely knew everything from looking at us. That's why she addressed us the way she did. A deceiver and a disgrace."

"And the more she spoke, the more anyone spoke back to her, the more that was shared and mentioned that seemed to reveal hidden details."

"She said the only one of them that could stand a chance against her in a fight was Shinji; our son was the only one who wasn't even half her size due to his stunted growth. Do you think she was lying?"

"I don't know. If she meant it, it probably implies that she is not the lying type. Then again, she claims to be the deadliest of the immortals. One who is deadly would also be capable of deception."

 _Except those who are disgraceful and deceptive are also capable of lying, too,_ Yui thought; this mainly stemmed from what The Demoness told them about how Shinji couldn't and wouldn't follow the beliefs of either parent due to taking a path far more vast than any they had taken…and how their son, in his short, four-year-long history of being immortal, couldn't and wouldn't delude himself with any false hope of the three of them ever being a family again because of everything that had happened. _That's why he invests himself in his other relationships that grant him stability in his life. They haven't caused him some form of personal grief…or used him like NERV has._

Ring-ring! Gendo's phone rang, and he answered it.

"Yes?" He questioned. "How long ago was this? Has he been informed? Make sure he's ready when he arrives. We may have no choice in the matter."

Yui looked at him with curiosity.

"An Angel was detected eight minutes ago," he explained to her. "It's currently in low orbit over the Pacific Ocean, dropping pieces of itself onto whatever it's fortunate enough to hit."

-x-

Shinji was still asleep after the Quickening he received from Takeru last night, probably due to it being different from the Quickenings that he usually experienced, and Akira and Takuya were pretty content on allowing him to sleep in.

Until…

Ring-ring! Their apartment's phone rang, and Takuya answered it.

"Rokubungi residence," he uttered. "This is Takuya speaking."

As they were both in the kitchen setting up lunch, Akira stopped setting down the chopsticks at the table when she heard her husband say, "He's still sleeping since last night."

Slid. She heard a door slide across in the hallway.

"Not anymore," she heard Shinji's voice, and then saw him slowly drag himself into the kitchen. "Good afternoon, you two."

"Not really good, Shinji," Takuya told him. "That was NERV. They need you down there right now."

-x-

Takeru didn't like this, even though he had no say in the matter. The sight of this creature that NERV called an Angel that floated in the space above the planet made him feel that there was no way that anyone, immortal or not, stood a chance of winning against it if it was truly one, big bomb. But his grandson was on his way over now to deal with the situation so that the people in the city and elsewhere around Japan could still have their homes and loved ones in their lives.

"Just how powerful is this one?" He asked Dr. Akagi; with the relinquishment of his immortality, he was no longer much of a concern for the paramilitary agency's security…and just a vagabond in need of stability to keep busy.

"Based on the repeated adjustments to its aim," the faux-blond answered him, "even if it misses its target if it decides to drop its whole body down, the resulting explosion will be strong enough to transform much of the country into an extension of the Pacific Ocean."

"And killing a lot of people," he sighed.

"Regretting your decision to go back to being mortal?"

"If I can spend my potential last day alive as a man without an eternity of life before dying, I can live with that. It's not dying that frightens me, either."

"The Third Child has arrived and is being put into Unit-01," uttered Maya to Ritsuko and Misato.

Within the Entry Plug, Shinji, having no time to change into his plugsuit, sighed at how awful his clothes were going to smell later when this ended. And he was still tired from the Quickening…and the dreams that resulted from the memories of his grandfather. They were deeply emotional, bittersweet and full of longing for forgiveness and redemption. He never expected that Takeru would spend days and nights agonizing over his decision to leave his family after becoming immortal, regretting it, over and over again, hating himself for never telling his wife why, discovering that she and their daughter had died…and how terrible it seemed to know how dark their son had become due to the feeling of abandonment he had caused.

 _If only all relationships could be mended,_ he thought, sympathetic to his paternal grandfather.

"We're counting on you to stop this Angel," he heard Misato say to him, informing him about the new Angel that was in space.

"Yeah," he responded, but then yawned.

On the bridge, the purple-haired woman turned to face Akira and Takuya with curiosity.

"I'm sorry, but is he bored by me?" She asked them.

"No, he was still sleeping off last night's series of events," the immortal woman answered.

"He had a date?"

"It was dinner," Takuya clarified. "And what's wrong with your other Eva? You have two of them."

Rei, who was also there in Central Dogma, looked at the couple and Captain Katsuragi. As far as she had been informed, Unit-00 was still out of order…and with everything else that has been going on, the orange Eva was unlikely to be used against the Angel at all.

"Unit-00 hasn't been successfully reactivated since its failed activation test from before Shinji was ordered to come here," explained Ritsuko to them.

Neither Akira or Takuya…or even Takeru liked her choice of words used, that Shinji was forced to come here by his father. It just made it sound like the boy was…expendable.

"And Unit-02 is still a month away from here," the faux-blond added.

"Why do I get the feeling that by the time backup does arrive, these creatures that show up to try and bury the human race will already be buried…and unnecessarily blown over for nothing?" Takuya questioned, which Akira merely nodded in the positive.

"Uh, Dr. Akagi?" Maya went, checking Shinji's synchronization with the Eva. "You really need to see this right now."

Ritsuko approached the younger woman's console…and was left wondering if Shinji being immortal and involved in a sort of struggle between light and darkness was part of how he was so insanely synchronized with the Eva than any other pilot, pre and post-Second Impact, in the history of the Eva.

"Is this accurate?" She asked Maya.

"So accurate, it's nightmarish," she responded.

Shinji's current synchronization with Unit-01…was past nine-hundred-fifty-eight percent.

"He far surpasses what was originally believed possible for pilots to achieve. He's extremely valuable."

Takeru moved over to Akira and Takuya and asked, "He's able to do this all because of his Quickenings, isn't he?"

"It's possible," Akira answered him. "Not really something I choose to invest in knowing fully so long as he's unharmed by what he does for everyone here."

"I think he intends to bury NERV into obscurity when this is all over."

"Would that be wrong?" Takuya asked.

"Honestly…it'd be good for everyone that needn't be involved in something like this."

-x-

If it weren't for the fact that the sun was out, The Demoness wouldn't have had to squint her eyes in order to see the Angel floating in space while standing atop the Taoist Building. She had to behead at least thirty immortals in order to obtain such power to view the veil of the cosmos, marvel at such beauty and vastness. In the immemorial time she had been alive and forced to wander the planet, the sight of the cosmos had served to temper some of her personal agony of losing her point of origin. Some…but not all of this agony would be quelled by a pretty curtain of darkness seeded with stars and strands of cosmic dust.

"And people of the here and now believe that space is vast and infinite," she told herself. "While such is true, they have no idea how precious the Earth truly is. They think of it as an endless resource that they can leave to their children. Oh, how wrong they are about such a belief. Second Impact, a devastating blow of their own design in an attempt to replace their gods. Oh, how very cruel…and very foolish of them to do such an act that did nothing but tarnish what little sanctity they have left. They think they their deities are still merciful, that they will forgive them for their trespass. Oh, how wrong they are. The people that want to renounce the gods that brought them the gift of knowledge that they misuse for their own purposes, that is. Gendo and Yui Ikari, the so-called parents of the Immortal Ikari. The original intention each one possessed for him has, apparently, come undone because the boy is immortal. And he can't follow them, no matter how much it either hurts or infuriates them to no end. He can't be their sacrifice for their agenda, anymore, even if they deny wanting him as such. Fate has other plans for him, for better or worse."

Her vision returned to normal as she turned to the sound of something large opening…and seeing the purple Eva emerge from the streets.

"Heh-heh-heh… Shinji Ikari. You might be more tempting to me than the Highlander, Freedom Wanderer and Maternity Samurai ever were in the past," she uttered, referring to Quentin MacLeod, Jose Jones and Akira Rokubungi, respectively. "And you don't disgust me like your parents did last night. Though, I'm not sure if your mother is more disgusting than your father…or the other way around. Probably the father. Their sins are referred more so those of the mothers. Maybe they'll get a brutal, unrelenting comeuppance by the time the Game is ready to end."

Whoosh! She felt the presence of an immortal behind her…and saw Jose Jones, the Freedom Wanderer, wielding his dual broadswords; certain immortals were so ambidextrous that they were able to wield two swords with equal proficiency.

"Do you honestly believe that you're a match for me?" She asked him, brandishing her own sword in front of him.

"I only came here to see if Shinji would do something incredible to protect the city," he explained his reason for being there. "And this building gives quite a view."

The Demoness turned back to face the purple giant and expressed, "Views from atop grand mountains offered greater ecstasy than those of artificial towers."

-x-

"…What do you suppose would happen if he were to hit one-thousand?" Maya suggested to Ritsuko on the bridge as Unit-01 walked over towards a hillside that was estimated by NERV to be part of the Angel's potential blast zones.

"If he did that, I'd consider him a god incarnate," the faux-blond expressed. _A very tiny god incarnate._

"The estimated blast zones are too large and spaced out for the Third Child to cover that many," said Shigeru to Hyuga. "And the plan has little chance of success."

"I know, but what choice do we have?" Hyuga asked him.

Akira sighed as she looked at the holographic screens. If Shinji prevailed in defeating this Angel, she decided to go on and carry out her own agenda with him, and she was hoping that he would prevail, not because of some selfish or predestined beliefs that didn't deserve to be fulfilled, but because she respected the boy for who he had become over the past four years they had been together.

The alarms went off like crazy as someone revealed that the Angel was beginning its descent from low orbit, heading towards Japan.

"I hope Shinji has some trick up his sleeve that can handle a creature that massive," Takeru told Akira and Takuya, expressing his concerns.

"If we know Shinji, he's got some sort of ace," Takuya responded.

-x-

The sky looked like it had turned a bad shade of red as Unit-01 stood atop the hill in the center of the city. It looked up and saw the speck of fire that was the Angel approaching. Inside the Eva, Shinji cracked his neck to get a chink out of its vertebrae and then rolled it counterclockwise.

"No way you win this," he uttered, putting his tanto behind him in the seat. "No way."

Slam! The Eva dug its right leg into the ground, followed by its left leg, and brought its hands together.

A small sphere of light emanated from in between them, getting bigger as it strengthened.

"Here's a little something from one of your own!" He shouted and thrust the Eva's arms forward, unleashing a stream of energy up into the sky towards the Angel. "Haaaaurgh!"

The beam hit the Angel from fifty miles above the archipelago, halting its progress. Immense heat from the attack started to burn away at the Angel's body, eroding it as it continued to descend, putting more effort into finishing its task. It recognized the stinging sensation of Ramiel, but this power was now being exploited by some…boy that couldn't grow any further due to a severe mishap that occurred to him in his past.

-x-

"Incredible!" Misato gasped, watching as the Eva unleashed an energy blast similar to that of the Fifth Angel, but only greater and more intense towards the descending Angel.

"The Angel's disintegrating!" Hyuga informed.

"It's being burned away by the blast," Ritsuko realized.

The Eva's attack lasted for at least another twelve seconds before it ceased…and all that remained of the Angel as it continued to descend…was its core. Then, its arms generated those energy blades that were seemingly obtained from the Fourth Angel, and assumed a stance as it waited from the core to fall closer towards the city.

"Oh, no, no," Ritsuko expressed; NERV needed an Angel core to study.

"Forget it, Ms. Akagi," Takuya told her. "Shinji doesn't like to gamble with such risks involved."

When the core came close enough, the Eva swung its left arm blade across and sliced it in half, followed by its right arm blade, slicing the two halves into four halves. They fell onto the streets around it and shattered into countless pieces, impossible to be reconstituted into a core.

"This kid is something else," a woman said below the command bridge.

"Extremely," added a man to her opinion.

Soon enough, the Eva was surrounded by electrical discharges that jerked its head and upper body forwards and backwards for a while as the pilot yelled from the pain he was experiencing as a result of defeating another immortal being.

"Aaaaurgh!" Shinji went, the inside of his plug filling with electrical discharges that surrounded his body. "Urgh!"

It only lasted for eight seconds before the Eva fell down.

"Are you alright, Shinji?" Misato asked him over the intercom.

On the screens, Shinji's face lifted up in front of the internal camera as he responded, "I'm fine."

If anything to Akira, Shinji had just gotten stronger with this new Quickening.

-x-

"…Now, that was quite a scene," said The Demoness, as she and Jose were able to ascertain the identity of the creature destroyed by Shinji. "Sahaquiel never stood a chance against a child immortal that has amassed such power in such a short period."

Jose had to agree with her, which was a first for him; he never saw himself agreeing with her on anything. The power he witnessed from the Eva, nothing more than an extension of the immortal boy, was beyond what he had seen in other immortals. If anything, he thought the boy was becoming a demigod of sorts, less than a true deity, but greater than any mortal could ever hope to be.

The Demoness then jumped off the roof, leaving Jose alone.

Jose ran to the edge, but couldn't see her anywhere.

The Demoness…had vanished from sight.

"I hope Shinji does defeat you," he uttered, hoping that she at least heard him say that.

-x-

As he vacated the plug and walked down the hall to the locker rooms to wash the LCL off his flesh and change into a clean pair of clothes Akira had brought him, Shinji felt his exhaustion from the previous day return to him. All he wanted to do was go back to the apartment and turn in for the rest of the day after he got something to eat. The memories and abilities he had obtained from Sahaquiel were like many others he had gained from the other Angels, but it felt like he was see-sawing between exhilaration and suspense. There was still much he had to do before this was all over.

 _Kami, I'm so tired,_ he thought as he walked into the locker room shower box and into a stall, shedding his LCL-stained clothes and turning on the hot water.

-x-

"…Fatigue?" Yui asked Akira, curious about Shinji's current state of being.

"That's right," the immortal woman explained as they walked down to the locker room (Akira still had Shinji's clean clothes). "Multiple Quickenings in such a short period of time can leave one feeling exhausted for a time. Last night's Quickening from Takeru was probably what took a lot out of him. It's nothing he won't recover from in a few days."

"But…if it's from so many of these, aren't there other…side-effects?"

"The only thing one should tend to have concerns about is the potential degree of psychological effects from any Quickening received. There's no real limit on how many an immortal can receive, but if some are obtained from people that are… Well, not as principled or as morally-influenced as my friends, Shinji and I are most of the time, and I say 'most' because there are no absolutes, no matter what your status or profession, you can be swayed to darker impulses that you normally wouldn't be swayed to."

"And this has happened before? Shinji…got swayed?"

"No, he's never been influenced by a Dark Quickening…because he's never experienced one before. Those are only obtained from immortals that do the like as often as they choose to."

"You're sure about that?"

As they stop in front of the locker room door, Akira tells Yui, "Shinji tells me much of whatever he feels he needs to keep me informed about. I don't keep secrets from him or lie to him about what's going on around him. Whatever it is that he asks me, no matter how curious or naïve the question, I try my best to answer, never to avoid."

Yet Yui got the feeling that the last part of her divulging was meant specifically for her to hear out of some measure of spite towards her and Gendo.

"You don't keep one tidbit of information from him, do you?" She asked the immortal woman.

"Keeping secrets is for people with hidden agendas that are better left unfulfilled," Akira answered her. "If there are no such secrets from such agendas, then nobody suffers because of others. The only good secret people can and should be permitted to get away with is just giving away disinformation on a surprise party planned for someone you know and love."

Akira then stepped inside the locker room and set the small bag with Shinji's clothes on a nearby bench and vacated the room.

"You two must be very close, then," Yui expressed.

She could've responded with the possibility that she could be close with Shinji if she simply renounced the agenda she had that he wouldn't allow to come to pass and just try to get in his good graces and let him forgive her on his own accord…but chose not to respond with anything. If this woman was supposed to be smart enough to create something as grotesque as the Evangelion, then she should be smart enough to understand that there were lines not meant to be crossed, no matter what one such as herself desired to happen to the world and everyone in it.

"Ugh," they both heard a small voice shuddering behind them as they turned around to see Shinji coming out of the locker room. "Ahh…"

It seemed that even with a hot shower, the boy was still exhausted, even though he should've been rested and prepped to take on the world.

"How do you feel, Shinji?" Akira asked him.

"Cranky," he answered, see-sawing sideways a little.

Then, he tilted more to his left and fell. He nearly hit the floor…were it not for Akira grabbing him in the nick of time.

-x-

"…The committee has been asking how the Eva has been able to do the things that it does with a non-functional core and how the Angels seem to be attacking in such a short period of time," Fuyutsuki told Gendo in his office, "and I'm running out of excuses to say that I have no clue as to how and keep them from questioning the boy."

Gendo was trying not to think about how to explain to the old men that his son was able to do the things he could because he had achieved immortality against his will on account that his maternal aunt had tried to kill him four years ago and ended up making him harder to kill. And the power he saw being unleashed by the Quickening of his father as he gave up his own immortality to return to being just an ordinary man. He didn't understand why Takeru would simply give up what could've been presented as an opportunity to obtain greater power.

"…If they were to know that he was immortal and that there were at least a handful of others like him locked in a battle between light and darkness for something called the Prize, the lengths they might take to try and use him to achieve greater goals," Fuyutsuki continued; the elder was concerned, mainly because of last night's encounter with The Demoness and her…determination to win the Game and the Prize for herself. "Though, in all honesty, it's anyone's guess on who will win the Game."

"But if the winner could be controlled," said Gendo to him, "if they could be made bendable to another's will…"

"No, Ikari," Fuyutsuki defended. "None of them should be controlled, no matter what we try. Whoever this Prize goes to for winning the Game, it's theirs to do with whatever they will, however they will. They don't even know what it is. It could be anything."

"The Prize could be absolute power to change the world."

"Or just untold riches of an unclaimed heritage, or maybe greater knowledge that the world has never known before. But whatever it is, only those who are immortal and in the Game have the right to obtain it. If you think you can get it by trying to find some sort of loophole that nobody else can find, you're setting yourself up for disappointment."

"What would you do with immortality?"

"I'd do what your father did last night. I'd rather be rid of it and made mortal once more than to outlive others when there is no reason to want to live forever."

Still, Gendo felt that he could benefit from this in some way. If he could control the immortal that won the Game, surely, whatever they received that was the Prize could be used to benefit him. He could still have all that he wanted before the world came to its end.

But Fuyutsuki wanted to believe in something vastly different that was stated within the realm of possibility last night. If someone like Shinji, Akira or these other two immortals that were there for dinner won the Game, then a grand future could be made within the present. He'd rather see a world where people weren't joined at the seams of the soul over a world where they were and there was no such thing as pain and death.

-x-

"…Aaaurgh! Aaah! Urgh!" Quentin grunted as he and The Demoness fought in a back alley.

"You know, I thought you were going to give up the Game and return to mortality for your little sister's sake," The Demoness hissed, swinging her sword at his. "You're nowhere near strong enough to best me, Highlander!"

"And you honestly think that the Immortal Ikari is better than the rest of us?" He asked her, blocking her sword blows. "If it's only because he's a child immortal, you're pretty low in your expectations."

"Oh, I've been disappointed with many of you immortals in the past…but I've got some degree of hope that the Immortal Ikari will prove to be more amusing than the previous immortals that fell before me."

The Demoness then grabbed Quentin by his neck and threw him aside, right into a garbage pile.

"You're out of your league, Highlander!" She told her, and then stabbed him in the chest.

"Aaaaaahh!" He screamed, feeling his heart get pierced.

"Relax, boy," she told him; even she was considering herself a fool for choosing this decision. "You're nothing but sport to me. I won't take your head. Do us both a favor…and get out of the Game. Give up your Quickening to the boy. Think about that pretty sister of yours. You don't want her to be left alone now, do you? She fears for your safety. Don't let her last memory of you be an unpleasant one."

She then ripped out her sword from his chest and ran off.

Quentin struggled as he got up and retrieved his sword. He thought he was going to die at her hands, but she left him alive, basically ignoring one of the Rules of the Game. Never before did anyone he face outside of his grace period fight him and not take his head off…and never before did any enemy immortal suggest that he give up on the Game.

" _After what I saw last night, maybe you should let Shinji get you out of the Game, Quentin,"_ Clyde's voice was recalled by him from before he put her to bed last night. _"You'd be like everyone else again and that woman won't come after you."_

After getting stabbed with a sword for the thousandth time in his immortal history, and for the eighth time by The Demoness, the Highlander was starting to wonder if he should retire from the Game.

" _Think of that pretty sister of yours,"_ her voice echoed in his mind as he hid his sword from sight as he walked down the street. _"Don't let her last memory of you be an unpleasant one."_

 _I don't believe this,_ he thought.

-x-

"…I feel like giving up on these," Takuya told Akira, sniffing the washed clothes Shinji had that were once drenched in that LCL that he learned from his immortal step-grandson was anything but actually tolerable. "I've washed these four times now. I can't get the smell out."

She came over and smelled Shinji's clothes, finding the stink still lingering.

"I'll see if there's a stronger detergent on the market," she sighed, taking the clothes and putting them in a bag that had Shinji's other clothes that he had on when he came to the city that were also stained with LCL.

"How is he doing?"

"Still sleeping. He's completely exhausted. It'll probably be another day or two before he fully recovers from his fatigue."

"Say, if you do this, then won't he be fatigued all over again?" Takuya wondered; ever since their talk about what they witnessed last night while Shinji was knocked out, the Rokubungi family's current ancestral patriarch worried that his immortal wife might've been expecting a little much of their grandchild to liberate her from this timeless struggle between light and darkness because she saw the way out presented to them.

"I have considered that possibility," she answered him, pressing her back against the wall beside the washer. "Nobody ever said this would be a simple and easy choice for one to make."

"I speak only cautiously because I don't want to lose either of you, but I won't get in your way of walking away from this."

Akira made a promise to herself that, in the event that if Shinji did become fatigued all over again, she would still protect him to the best of her ability to do so until he had recovered, even if it meant the possibility of her getting severely harmed.

-x-

Three days had passed after the previous Angel attack, and while the school was informed that Shinji would be absent for a while, this didn't sit well for the immortal boy's friends, who were curious as to why he'd been absent when they didn't see him after the second day since being evacuated to the shelters instead being evacuated out of the city. So they, being concerned for him, went to the boy's apartment after school on the third day.

"I've been watching the news, and there hasn't been any new deaths involving decapitation," Kensuke informed Toji and Hikari as they walked down the hall to the door with the identification tag that revealed Shinji's current residence.

"Do you really think NERV would allow the public to know that a little boy that's actually fourteen had been beheaded by someone?" Toji questioned.

Hikari pressed the buzzer and waited for a response from the inside of the apartment.

"Rokubungi residence," they heard a male voice speaking to them.

"It's Hikari Horaki, Toji Suzuhara and Kensuke Aida," Hikari uttered. "We're here to see Shinji."

"Okay, just a moment," the voice (they now identified as Takuya's) told them.

The door opened a minute later and revealed Takuya, who bowed his head to them.

"Good afternoon, you three," he greeted them.

"Hello, sir," Toji greeted back. "We were worried about Shinji when he didn't come back to school after the second day. Is he alright?"

"He's okay. He's just…sleeping."

"Narcolepsy, sir?" Kensuke suggested, since they didn't know what was going on.

"No, nothing like that. His Quickening from his grandfather really took a lot out of him…and the most recent one from the Angel he took out just made his exhaustion more so. He's been recouping through sleeping ever since that night, so he should be well-rested when he's done."

"You mean, you and Akira don't know when he'll wake up?" Hikari asked.

"No, we don't."

Creak. A noise came from behind Takuya and the four looked down the hall and saw Shinji, walking down towards a door and dragging a small blanket behind him.

"He gets up every two or three times to use the bathroom and then returns to sleep," Takuya explained Shinji's current state. "He's barely conscious when he does so, but he's conscious enough to know when people are around."

They heard a toilet flush and the running of water for a minute before it stopped. Then, Shinji walked out of the bathroom, his eyes still full of the need for more sleep, but this didn't keep him from walking towards the front door.

"Hey, there, Shinji," Toji greeted him.

"Ahh… Hey, friends," Shinji yawned, and then fell against the wall on his right.

Takuya sighed and picked up Shinji.

"So, he's had one too many Quickenings?" Kensuke suspected.

"No," answered Akira, offering the three teens tea as they sat in the living room. "Just so many consecutively in such a short period with not enough time to adjust to the power increase. Takeru's Quickening overwhelmed him and the culprit to why may be when he fought three Angels consecutively and gaining their power with each victory over them in a single day. Another drawback is his state of age and being; a Quickening is like…well, kinda like a series of vaccination shots taken one after another. The body needs to adjust at its own pace."

"So, I guess five of them just wiped him out and he needed more rest to recover, then," said Hikari in realization over Shinji's current situation, accepting a cup of tea from Akira. "Sometimes, I think he can pass for a boy of seven years if not nine or ten."

"And his size has been both his advantage and disadvantage. It's only through effort and exploiting his alternatives that he's able to deal with people that try to get a one-up on him."

"I hope that when he's rested up, he'll be more…active," went Toji.

"Oh, I'm sure he'll be back to his active self in another day or two," Akira assured the teens.

Whoosh! She felt the presence of another immortal, but this presence felt slightly different than the last few she experienced.

"Or less," they all heard Shinji's voice, seeing at the entrance to the living room, looking all rested.

"How do you feel, Shinji?" Takuya asked him.

The boy smiled as he expressed, "Like I needed all that sleep. I feel so much better now."

Grumble. Shinji held his waist as his stomach growls; as he had been asleep for the length of time he had been forced to take to adjust to the increase in power he had, his body had burned through most of the fat and calories he had consumed in the previous meals he had, leaving him deprived of any reserves a regular boy would've had.

"No offense, Shinji, but you need to put on weight," Toji told him.

"None taken," he responded. "Do we have any instant ramen?"

"Ha-ha-ha!" They all laughed.

-x-

The city at night didn't serve to amuse The Demoness one bit. If anything, it just made her more disgusted with its artificiality as she stood atop one of its buildings that was as fake as its hollowed underbelly housing an underground facility.

Swing! Slash! She swung her sword around on the roof, her stances similar to those of sword masters from around the world, all blended together to form a unique style.

 _The sooner those three are disposed of by that Immortal Ikari, the better,_ she thought; her decision to forgo the Quickenings of Akira, Quentin and Jose only seemed to enhance her ire over the time it was taking to end the Game. _Their power pales in comparison to his…and I've only had a taste of such power a lifetime ago._

She bent her left knee as she lowered to the ground, her sword behind her head as it reached towards her right hand, and then she bent her right knee and outstretched her left leg, holding the sword in her right hand as it reached towards her left.

Sometimes, just sometimes, The Demoness recalled her ancient memories with such detail that her perception of the world shifted to reflect those memories. For just a moment, all of Tokyo-3 had been completely replaced by a different city that, to the deadliest immortal of the Game, was more familiar and more amazing than any other city in the history of the human race. The buildings were made of white, gold and silver metals that were, despite their industrial appearances, as organic as the trees that were spaced out on the streets and atop fountains. To her left and right were men and women of various ages, diverse ethnicities that were never addressed until thousands of years later, dressed in wondrous robes and gowns of various shades of blue, red, green and brown.

Looking down to her feet, The Demoness saw her memory of a small, rabbit-like animal that was as big as a bulldog, with wings like those of a dragon from mythology in place of its ears. She lowered down and pet the creature on its head, causing its ears to flop up and its left hind leg to thump in appreciation. A smile, one of genuine happiness, formed on her face as her most ancient of emotions surfaced for just a moment. But then, as she rose back up, the memory ceased and The Demoness was back on the roof of the empty, false building…of a soulless city that was just one of many that paled sadly in comparison to the great city that, to the immortal that had to abandon it in the dead and cold of night, had once been her home.

 _Back then, I didn't even have any dreams or ambitions,_ she thought, looking down at the rest of the city, at the Japanese lives that were out and about, either looking to get into trouble, out of trouble, find a significant other to fill their small, meaningless lives…or just a meaningless piece of flesh to humiliate for their own pleasure. _Back then…I didn't believe in any of these concepts that people believe in or choose to defile out of some form of contempt. But now, I know better. And I know that the power to change things isn't something simply given to the select few. Power, real power…is something that must be taken as soon as possible before others that seek it out can._

She watched as a man of the law walked inside a brothel with a woman in cheap makeup. Oh, how it disgusted her that in every place she had to find a semblance of a life in over the centuries, watching people grow old and die while she remained exactly as she was, there were people ruled by their sins, one after another, in excess. There was no exception to this revelation. Even she demonstrated her own viciousness that was the result of a series of sins committed against herself.

"I…hate…this world," she expressed.

-x-

The very next day at school, atop the roof, Shinji sat with his friends as he relayed to them the defeat of the most recent Angel that attacked by dropping pieces of its own body from space like bombs across the water and land as it corrected its aim.

"It sounds like these Angels are attacking more and more with each day," Kensuke told them.

"Do you have any idea how many of them are left?" Hikari asked.

"Yeah, I've been keeping track," Shinji revealed. "If my information is accurate, there should only be four of them left to face."

"But you don't seem happy about that," went Toji to him.

"Knowing this is like knowing bits of the future, and the thing about the future is that it can be changed by doing things that deviate from predetermined events…by those that want to defy what has happened before. You ever hear the theory of multiple universes? Causality?"

"For every action you take, there's an equal and opposite reaction?" He asked the immortal.

"Yeah. Every day, every situation, every choice made, creates a ripple in existence. Each ripple, each moment, just creates a new universe in a sea of universes that is ever-expanding…and full of infinite possibilities. But the ones that matter to me the most…are the ones where the world that exists today, right now…isn't undone because of people that wish to renounce their place in the world…or use others to achieve goals that should be nothing more than rotten fantasies not worth dreaming about."

"And…if these are events that have transpired in some form or another…you already know what happens before it can happen."

"Only the ones that have the most impact on choices made."

"Then…what happens to the three of us in the one you know of that you're trying to prevent from happening in this one?"

Shinji hated the memories of that different life that echoed through his conscious, how some of the worst ones seemed to claw at his soul as though they could happen, regardless of his deviation.

"In that lifetime," he sighed, "we never see each other again after the world gets undone and remade…and nobody remembers anything about what happened, who did what to anyone…or why. Relationships were erased, feelings cast aside…and nothing is the way they should be."

"But…surely, there's some sort of bright side, right?" Hikari asked him.

Before he could say that there wasn't any, that the guy she had a crush on had been erased from existence and nobody gave a damn, Shinji just lost sense of perception and began to experience some derealization. He saw a man, older than he was and looking like he could've grown up into him, but his face was blank, devoid of most expressions, floating in the vastness of space. And the eyes… It was his eyes that gave away his darkest desire. A desire…for everything to stop and be no more.

"EVERY LIFE I LIVE JUST HURTS ME MORE!" The young man yelled, his eyes turning dark as the loneliness of his surroundings.

A moment later, Shinji was back on the roof with the three. They were looking at him like something had happened.

"Are you okay?" Kensuke asked him.

"Yeah, I…" He went, but wasn't sure why he saw or fantasized what he did. "Say, do any of you ever get the feeling that just beyond the vastness of space is someone trying to tell you something, only they're not who you think they are?"

"No," Toji answered.

"Never," added Hikari.

"That'd be a first for me," went Kensuke. "Did you?"

"Maybe. Just now. I don't know why…but I think the guy I saw…was someone that was in more pain than most can possibly comprehend."

-x-

"…With any luck, we'll be ready to retest and reactivate Unit-00 the day after tomorrow," Ritsuko informed Misato on the bridge in Central Dogma.

"That'll be good," the purple-haired woman responded. "Maybe we should give Shinji a break from the piloting, allow him to do something else with his time."

"You mean, what he's been involved in ever since that maternal aunt of his tried to kill him? I don't find that likely."

As much as Misato wanted to question that, she had no say in this matter that concerned those like Shinji. Even though it seemed to go against the rules and regulations that NERV had regarding the pilots, the boy was more than an asset to the Evangelion program. He had become some sort of sign that people were able to stand up to giant monsters that wanted to destroy the world…but was also a young man that had a problem with certain levels of authority.

"What do you think the chances are of him actually showing NERV some measure of cooperation when it comes to following orders?" She asked Ritsuko.

"Very slim," she answered back. "He has more respect for his ancestral grandmother than he does for most others. And based on their get-together dinner, the boy doesn't have much in the way of acceptance towards either of his parents."

"Tell me about it. Most children would likely be thrilled to have their mothers and fathers brought back to life, but Shinji… It's like…she comes back to life…and he treats her the same as he would his father, as nothing but a complete stranger with no hope of reconciliation…and we don't even know why."

"You wouldn't be surprised if you did know why," they looked over the bridge and saw Takeru, sitting cross-legged on MAGI Casper. "Well, probably."

"And you'd know?" Ritsuko questioned him.

"Only because Shinji told me," he answered her, "and because I've seen his memories and emotions."

"And his reason for choosing not to give his mother the time of day?" Misato asked him.

"Resentment over her choice more than ten years ago," he explained. "How can a mother go and let herself get consumed by her work, literally, in front of her toddler child, and then later expect him to be a deciding factor in deciding everyone else's fate?"

The two women looked at each other and then back down at Takeru; it was an unfortunate miracle that nobody else was present in Central Dogma at the moment.

"He…he resents what she did that long ago?" Misato questions.

"In his mind, it's no different from playing God with someone's life. In his mind, people that choose to have children shouldn't have unforeseen or unacceptable motives for doing so. Parents that understand each other and keep no secrets often results in stable children. But parents like my son and daughter-in-law, who have kept secrets so shameful and hurtful, even from each other… Well, the end result is someone like Shinji himself…who will do whatever it takes, within his power to make the choices he can live with making, to break free from them and cast aside their goals in favor of his own where people don't need to exist because of some lousy sense of destiny. Nobody, not even a child, should have to exist because of some mediocre fate their parents have tried to force upon them."

"And you actually believe him?" Ritsuko questions his sense of understanding. "You don't think that maybe, just maybe, he's probably taken a few blows to his cerebellum?"

Takeru turned his head around to look at them and answered the faux-blond, "It's not the brain and nervous system that suffers in an immortal, child or adult. It's the heart and soul that become maimed over time. Have either of you been maimed before? Emotionally maimed, that is? Has anyone hurt you in a way that would make you hate them? Even a little bit?"

Misato sighs and thinks back to the last time she was with her father, a pitiful and pathetic excuse for a man that put his work before her mother and she. Oh, how she hated him and wanted nothing to do with him after her mother divorced him.

"Relationships are illogical," Ritsuko expresses. "Stability with such bonds is practically nonexistent."

"Well, I've outlived my wife due to my unwanted immortality, Ms. Akagi," Takeru told her, "and trust me, there isn't a day that passes by where I don't think about what could've been had I told her I got killed on my way home from the supermarket. There isn't a day that goes by where I don't wonder what might've been had I not said the awful things I said before I up and left home. I still think about her. Her and our daughter. What they did over the years I was gone, how they managed to get by in my absence, whether or not they survived Second Impact and so on. Heh-heh. Even if things don't work out for me with trying to mend my maimed relationship with my son, the only thing I can still look forward to…is a natural death to my extended life."

That's when they were reminded that Takeru was over eighty years old, despite looking well into his early-forties, a direct result of his immortality keeping him from aging any further.

"Tell me, do you think Shinji could bear to be a little more cooperative with us when it comes to the Angels?" Misato asked him. "I mean, it won't be long before we put an end to them all, but he could be a little more tolerable towards an order he's given."

"Maybe, but you have to take into consideration that he's not like other young men his age. He's a person before he's anything you would want for him to be. He'll see a different way to deal with something that, in his mind, may work out better than the original suggestion. Also, he takes into consideration that if he defeats an enemy quick enough, it reduces the risk of human casualties, since the battlefield is a city where people live. One of his friends actually praises the boy for keeping his sister out of harm's way. How many people do you think would thank him after knowing what he does, who he is?"

-x-

"…So, this is the guy you saw, Shinji?" Hikari asked the immortal child as he put the finishing touches on the drawing of the young man he saw in his vision during class time, since the teacher was droning about the Second Impact aftermath again that the students were tuning out.

"Yep," he answers. "I hate this."

"Hate what?" Kensuke asks.

"My art," he explains. "So complicated and yet I can draw people down to the eyebrows…and I've never had any lessons. So, it's not really considered a work of art. This is the guy I saw. He's not someone you can forget so easily when he yells something that makes no sense."

"What did he yell?" Toji asks.

"He said…that every life he lives just hurts him more. He didn't strike me as an immortal, though."

Hikari looked more closely at the drawing…and drew some parallels.

"Shinji, I mean you no disrespect," she stated, "but this guy… He kinda looks like you. I mean, if you were taller and older."

Shinji looked up at her and responded, "None taken, but I doubt I could potentially look anything like this guy. He was so full of loneliness, so much depression, so much resentment, like he lost more than what he was willing to part with. He looked like he lost everything that mattered to him."

"But…you spoke of there being more than one universe in which we reside in, right?" Kensuke states. "What if, just a theory, by the way, this guy is from one of them? What if something happened to him that made him this way?"

"And that something left him with a dark desire," Shinji uttered quietly. "A desire for everything to stop. Maybe something that was beyond what he could comprehend."

"Shinji?" Toji spoke.

"It's an interesting theory. If this guy is from another universe, maybe I'll find out more about him later on. You three should come up with your own ideas about what could've happened to him, too."

Shinji then folded the drawing and gave it to Hikari; he didn't really need it since the memory was etched into his mind.

-x-

Scrape. Scrape. Scrape. Akira sharpened her sword as she watched one of her programs on the television in the living room.

"So, when exactly are you going to tell him?" She heard Takuya ask her.

"As soon as he gets back," she answers. "Are you worried that The Demoness might set her sights on him prematurely?"

"If she's interested in his power, I have every right to be worried. If the balance of power has truly shifted towards Shinji, then he's more powerful than the three of you left that represent the light side of existence. To take interest in him is rather unusual for an enemy immortal to play favorites on another immortal they hardly know."

"It's unusual for any immortal to play favorites on other immortals. It's no different from parents who play favorites on one of their children while looking past the rest."

They heard the front door open and close…followed by a heavy sigh.

"I'm home," they heard Shinji say to them.

Akira sheathed her sword and set it aside as she got up to greet him.

"Welcome home, Shinji," she told him. "How was your day?"

"It was…mesmerizing and defying a sense of realization."

"Those are big words, Shinji."

"And your day?"

"I guess you could say that it is the same…in a way."

Shinji nodded his head slowly and then went to his room to cast his book bag onto his futon.

"Was there something you wanted to tell me…Akira?" He asked, removing his tanto from under his shirt, turning around to see the immortal ancestress standing at his door.

"Yes," she answered him. "As a matter of fact, there is. I've thought it over since that night after dinner, seeing you do something that even I had thought to be nothing more than a simple daydream, and I've come to my latest choice. Shinji…I want to hang up my sword and retire from the Game…permanently. Can you handle that?"

Shinji had that look of relief in his eyes. He had only used this power once after acquiring it, and he knew he had opened a door of sorts that was likely to attract and appeal to the minds of maybe a few people that would've done anything to escape their fates. The power of one of the Seven Salvation Immortals that had this ability to preserve the lives of other immortals by taking their eternity away. And while he did mean what he had said about not forcing the remaining immortals to do something they couldn't just go and undo, he just hoped that he wouldn't have to fight any of them.

"When?" He asked her.

"As soon as you can, if you have the time to waste on me," she answered him.

"I have time to waste…which isn't really wasted upon you."

"Thank you, Shinji."

-x-

"…Rei?" Ritsuko went, seeing the albino girl in her plugsuit in the hallway at NERV HQ. "There's no synchronization test scheduled for you until tomorrow. What are you doing here?"

The First Child turned to face the faux-blond woman and had a look of severe apathy.

"The Third Child," she responded, "does he not make you…unpleasant?"

That was quite the question to ask anyone.

"There are reasons for his…unpleasantness, Rei," she told her. "He went through a traumatic experience due to feelings of negativity exhibited by his maternal aunt…and he never truly recovered from either that or his abandonment by his father. Even the time spent with his…grandmother and step-grandfather…has done little to quell his held-back anger, despite being in complete control of his emotional states all the time."

"Do you not have faith in him?"

"It's not really a matter of faith. It's a matter of reliability. So long as he's able to pilot the Eva and defeat the Angels, what I think of him beyond that is of little relevance."

"Does this include his disregard for leaving a specimen of the Angels intact for research and development? Time and again, you have ordered him to leave the core of the defeated Angel for such attempts, and he goes on to destroy them, unwilling to take the risk that the Angels won't recover."

"I don't like that he has his moments when he disobeys the orders he's given, but what choice do we have when he's currently our only defense between a future for the human race and total extinction?"

"The Third Child is an incorrigible boy. He…harbors a measure of instability beyond that of others."

"You're saying that he's crazy?"

"Not crazy. Unstable. If he cannot be controlled, he puts NERV at risk. If he cannot be managed more thoroughly, it brings into question where his loyalties reside."

"It's pretty obvious that his loyalties reside with those he is close to, Rei, and that excludes NERV."

"Do you trust him?"

"Whether I trust him or not is moot at this point."

Rei then bowed her head and turned away.

"Commander Ikari ordered me to come for synchronization testing," she explained her presence.

-x-

The wilderness was the best place to perform the Quickening. It was away from the city and remote, making so that nobody saw anything short of something unexplainable.

"Are you ready?" Shinji asked Akira, holding up his sword as he stood atop a tree trunk that had been cut down so that was as close to his grandmother's height as possible.

"Very," she responded.

They held onto his sword's hilt and felt Shinji's aura emanating like before with Takeru all over again. A small blast of wind swept past their legs as dirt and grass bits swirled around their bodies.

"May the knowledge and experience of immortals, past and present, now be shared!" Shinji shouted, his sword unleashing electrical energy around their arms.

In a strange way, Akira felt part of a flow that directed towards Shinji. All that she knew, all that she was…was now becoming part of him.

-x-

They couldn't see it, but Quentin and Jose felt the Quickening occurring. They felt it was Shinji and Akira, probably because Akira was looking to get out of the Game, the same thing they were considering on opposite sides of the city.

Even The Demoness felt it and was impressed by the decency Akira had to know when to step down.

"One down," she said from atop the Taoist Building where she could feel the effects of the Quickening at their strongest, "three to go."

And then, a moment later, the Quickening had ceased…and all three felt the Immortal Ikari had grown stronger than previously estimated.

-x-

Falling to her knees, Akira felt like she had run more than a mile to feel such a state of exhaustion upon her body, surrounded by scorched earth. For the first time in a long time, the woman felt like she had been the night before she gave birth to her only daughter. She felt mortal again…and it was a great feeling.

"Urgh," she heard Shinji groan as he fell off the trunk and hit the ground. "So beautiful…and so many. I never could've believed that there were so many of us from over two-thousand years ago…because of you, Akira."

He had seen her memories. Not only did he see and hear all that she did, unlike with Takeru, he felt her experiences. Her joy, her sorrow, her rage, her passion, her hope. This had been the history of the Maternity Samurai since before she became immortal…and it was full of humanity, beyond comprehension with the other immortals he had faced.

Akira crawled over and around the trunk and found Shinji on his back, looking up at the sky. She hadn't seen him appearing so content before.

He looked over at her as she got up and sat against the trunk.

"How are you?" He asked her.

"Eh-heh-heh. Like an elderly woman that just got a workout at the gymnasium."

"Heh! Your memories of each husband after your first and before Takuya… Each one appealed to your heart in his own way and you had no favorite one. Even after their deaths from sickness and old age, you still loved them. That's a big heart that knows no limits except for the ones you set for it."

"Thank you, Shinji. Are you going to be alright for now? I'm pretty sure your Quickening from me will likely leave you drained of energy for a while."

"I'll be honest, I definitely feel fatigued, but it's a price I'm willing to pay to keep from having to face the ones I love most."

They rested for a while before Akira was well enough to drive them back to their apartment. The former immortal of over twenty-four-hundred years of age had been set free by her immortal child descendant from the Game. She didn't regret her decision, but hoped to every deity of morality that Shinji won the Prize if it came down to he and The Demoness. If he won, it would be a future worth living in over one where your death was the only true freedom from tyranny.

"Hey, Shinji," she spoke up.

"Huh?" He responded, albeit with the degree of fatigue that he had from the previous Quickenings he had obtained.

"Do your best to win the Game, Immortal Ikari."

He was feeling tired, but he heard her words…and raised his left hand to give her the peace sign.

"I love you."

A small tear was shed from his left eye.

-x-

Even though he didn't really need to, Takuya swept the floor, something Shinji usually did every other week. He was wondering what was taking Akira and Shinji so long to come back from the wilderness outside of the city. He couldn't believe that they were in an accident or something because someone would've called him; they were each other's emergency contact in the event of any incidents where they were involved.

The sound of the front door opened and the scuffing of a pair of shoes on the floor.

"We're back," he heard Akira's voice.

Since he was in the kitchen, Takuya walked into the hall and saw his wife and grandson.

"He got the wind taken out of him again?" He asked, noticing that Shinji was being carried by Akira due to being out cold.

"My fault entirely," she revealed. "I was the only one that he knew that had more to history than those that came after him."

"He has your Quickening now? You're out of the Game?"

"So long as I don't die of unnatural causes again like before, I'm as mortal as you, honey."

Takuya sighed as he raised his left hand and patted Shinji on his back.

"He's very special," he told her.

"Yes, he is," she agreed with him.

To be continued…

A/N: And I'll end this chapter here. Patience, readers. Each story will get worked on at a steady pace. Inspiration and motivation can't come through demanding updates.


	13. Getting Out

Creation began on 11-13-17

Creation ended on 12-17-17

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Immortal Ikari: Getting Out

"You, too, Highlander?" Jose asked Quentin MacLeod as he stood outside the Rokubungi apartment, the day after the Quickening Akira gave Shinji.

"Yes, Mr. Jones," Quentin answered. "It's not really for me, though. It's for Clyde."

"Same difference, man. We can't match The Demoness."

"Plus, she's more interested in the Immortal Ikari than the rest of us."

"It's crazy."

Quentin rang the doorbell and waited for a response from inside.

"Rokubungi residence," uttered Akira. "Who is it?"

"Quentin and Jose," Quentin answered.

The door slid open and revealed Akira, who seemed rather radiant today for a woman pushing over twenty-four-hundred years of age.

"How do you feel, Akira?" Jose asked her.

"A little elevated on my ramen intake, but otherwise in perfect shape," she answered him. "What brings you here today?"

"Pretty much the same thing as experienced the day before," Quentin expressed. "We both had an encounter with The Demoness, who wasn't interested in our heads at all."

Akira understood and invited them inside.

"Shinji's still asleep," she informed them as they sat in the living room. "Apparently, because of his status as a child immortal, Quickenings obtained in succession over short periods of recuperation leave Shinji more exhausted lately."

"Gives a whole new meaning to having too much of something," said Jose.

"Very," agreed Quentin. "I have no problem with waiting if The Demoness won't try to come after me, but, just out of curiosity, how long until he fully recovers?"

Before she could answer that she was uncertain about the length of time to adjust for Shinji, said boy entered the room and made his presence known.

"Ahh…" He yawned, still half-asleep. "Good afternoon."

"Hey, there, Shinji," the men greeted him. "Did we wake you?"

"No. Your presence enough interferes with dream I had about one of Akira's memories from the year before Tokyo was founded."

"Sorry about that," apologized Quentin to him.

"It's okay, really," Shinji assured them as he sat down on the other side of the room. "It's not something I can't recall at a later time. So…what brings you two here today?"

"I think you know the answer to that question already, Immortal Ikari," said Jose to him, bowing his head in respect.

"Yeah," he sighed, "I do. But what I don't get yet is why."

"We both had a recent encounter with The Demoness," Quentin explained. "She could've killed us and moved on…except she didn't."

"But…she had you at her mercy, didn't she?" Akira asked him.

"She did, and in accordance with the Rules, my head was hers for the taking if she cut me. But instead, she let me go. She told me to consider getting out of the Game for Clyde's sake."

"Even without the verbal attitude, she made it clear that her objective, pure and simple, is nobody's head except yours, Shinji," Jose revealed. "To her, you're the strongest out of those that remain. I don't know if you're second to her, but you're considerably more powerful than any other immortal I know I can call a friend and ally. And as someone that chooses to try and see an alternative to a live-or-die conflict between two people, you're also someone I know has what it takes to win the Game."

"Much appreciated. Despite my lingering exhaustion from yesterday's Quickening, I'm willing and able to get you out of the Game, so long as it's what you really want."

"I don't want the Prize," said Quentin, "but I don't want to leave my sister an orphan because of the Game. So…I want out of the Game, please."

"Likewise," added Jose. "The less baggage I have to concern myself with, the easier it will be for the future yet to come."

Shinji yawned again and gave both men the thumb gesture with his left hand.

"When shall we do this?" He asked them.

Ring-ring-ring! The apartment phone rang, and Akira got up and answered it.

"Yes?" She asked. "Oh, man."

-x-

It seemed as though the Angels were attacking just as soon as the previous one was defeated, and trying something different each time.

"…Okay, is Shinji not sleeping enough at night?" Misato asked Akira in Central Dogma.

"It's complicated," she responds.

"I know he's immortal already, so there's no reason to make excuses."

"Oh, is that so?"

"He's immortal. You're immortal…"

"Actually, I've been mortal since yesterday evening, thanks to Shinji."

"You mean…what Shinji did for his grandfather…he did for you, as well?"

"We don't have to fear fighting each other now."

"Do you feel it was worth it?"

"You mean, am I glad to be mortal? Then, yes, I am. Do I feel it was worth it? I made a promise to keep Shinji from anyone that seeks his death if I ever gave up my immortality. It is worth it."

"Here's the new Angel," said Hyuga to them, and everyone was in awe at the insanity of the new enemy. "My God."

"God, indeed," went Takeru.

The Angel on the screens was in orbit above the Earth and was glowing an intense brightness that obscured its appearance. To the human mind, it looked like a series of branches stuck together or a strange pair of wings.

"Shinji, are you seeing this?" Akira questioned.

Within the Eva, Shinji, just shaking his exhaustion off now, responded, "Yeah. Hard to describe it, though. Eerie, twisted, aesthetic, contorted."

"What you did with the last Angel," suggested Ritsuko, "do you suppose you could do with this one?"

"Unlikely. This one's further from the planet and might not dare come closer. Not without an incentive to do so, that is."

"An incentive?" Misato and Fuyutsuki questioned.

"A lure, if you will," Akira explained. "People use other people and objects to serve as decoys to lure an enemy into a false sense of security in order to get the better of them."

"So far, it's staying in orbit above Japan, similar to the last one," expressed Shigeru, "but it hasn't made an attempt of any kind to come further or attack."

Through his recollection of other events from the other lifetime that he never lived, Shinji knew perfectly well what this Angel was capable of, and refused to be subjected to its mind-invading light. Images of a redhead he never knew screaming from mental violation and her own inability or unwillingness to open up was something he didn't need to attempt at echoing in a perverse way…and because of the repeated attacks happening just one after another without a sense of extended adjustment on the part of the Angels, NERV didn't have the one thing that could actually get this Angel without fail. Not that it would have made a difference in the long run if things didn't change to prevent history from repeating itself.

"Y'all don't have a dummy of the Eva to incite the Angel or something?" He asked them.

-x-

The Demoness walked down the empty streets as she looked up at the bluish-gray sky. Seeing past it into the black and white of space, she saw the creature that looked like the most disgusting result that the universe had ever attempted at creating a bird-like organism that could live in deep space.

"That is one…seriously awful bird," she sighed.

Suddenly, the streets around her lit up, removing the shadows and colors, bathing her in light.

-x-

"…It's attacking already?!" Ritsuko demanded, seeing the light illuminating the city.

"It doesn't look like it's causing any damage to the city," said Shigeru. "There's no trace of hostility in that light."

Suddenly, the Angel on the screen, despite its intense brightness obscuring its form, began to look as though it were contorting. The left side of its body moved up while the right side twisted as it moved down, spiraling.

"Is there something about this Angel the eggheads neglected to inform me about?" Shinji asked; since he had nothing but memories from an alternate life, he couldn't rely on what he saw happen before.

Then, the Angel bloated as it elongated for a second before imploding upon it, reshaping into something that resembled a humanoid form.

"Eh-heh-heh!" They all heard the Angel through the satellites transmitting live video. "This almighty creature is weak, thinking itself strong. To shine its light upon one that has spent her eternity in eternal darkness by means of the heartbreaking fate her family dealt her, similar to the cruel fate the Immortal Ikari's parents tried to deal him. The violation of one's personal space that is represented by the mind is an unbearable agony brought upon by the brutality of the long-lived will of one that seeks untold power to fulfill her vengeance against the world."

"What in the name of…" Yui, surprised by the lucidity of the Angel…and its familiarity with the way it spoke. "Incredible."

"The Demoness," the bridge heard Shinji say. "This Angel just signed its own death certificate by shining its light upon the deadliest of the immortals."

"There's no way this woman is capable of defeating an Angel without an Evangelion," Misato stated.

"The Demoness isn't any woman," said Takeru to her. "Not in the traditional sense…or however else you would define a woman."

"You don't know that," expressed Gendo to his father.

"Do you really think we don't know an immortal woman who's probably been around far longer than the rest of us put together?" Akira questioned. "You've only met her once, and that was by chance. Not much time to get to know her in the traditional sense…but enough for her to know you from her own perspective, to know everyone from her own perspective."

The humanoid form of the possessed Angel then contorted again, wings sprouting from its back.

"Quite a pity, this almighty messenger that responds to the death of its fallen comrades," The Demoness continued as the head jutted out angular angles. "Even those blessed with a natural eternity know that they will eventually come to pass. No one is exempt from this fact of existence. The price it pays for trespassing upon the sanctity of my mental temple."

On the screens, the Angel returned to its original form…and was immediately ripped to shreds, leaving no trace of its existence.

"I don't believe it," went Akira, fearful of what was likely to happen as a result of the Angel's demise.

"The Demoness…killed the Angel," added Takeru. "I fear this is very bad."

"You have no idea how bad," said Shinji in the plug. "The Angel fought The Demoness and lost. The winner claims all that the loser had."

-x-

A little disoriented from the mental intrusion by the Angel's attack on her, The Demoness inhaled as she felt an influx of energy surge through her and around her. Her body was lifted forty feet into the air.

"Aaaaaahh!" She screamed as she received her new Quickening, this one greater than the last few hundred put together. "Aaahh!"

She felt like she was drowning in a sea of bliss, incinerated by cold fire, drawn and quartered by the greatest war lords in unknown history…and it still wasn't enough to describe how she was feeling! Her eyes burned with liquid fire, seeing the world around in varied shades of scarlet and green. She could pierce the veils that protected the souls of others from herself, she could reach into their hearts and grip their emotions while installing an unquenchable fear of her that couldn't be escaped from.

 _This is power!_ She thought, never feeling anything like this before. _This is a taste of a god's power! So massive, so bountiful…and its taste is sweet!_

SLAM! She slammed back onto the street with enough force to cause the windows of the buildings around her to crack and shatter, raining glass onto the street around.

"Yaaaahh!" She yelled, causing those falling pieces to shatter even further, blanketing the streets in powdered glass particles.

-x-

Shinji saw, heard and felt the full force of her Angel-enhanced Quickening…and felt unshakable terror of her increased fury. If he had gotten their powers for himself, he didn't fear much trouble with The Demoness, but now this changed things. Whether or not The Demoness knew of this, she now had a power that could spell disaster for many if she decided to play around with it or incite panic, depending entirely on what she chose to do with it. And even if he had obtained more of these Quickenings than she had, he felt it would still be a miracle to match her.

 _My seven Angel Quickenings to her one Angel Quickening,_ he thought, calculating the remaining Angels left after this from his recall, _leaves Adam, Lilith, Armisael, Bardiel and Tabris._

While he had no clue as to where Adam was, how soon the remaining members of his brood would show up, but he had some inkling of what could happen if he destroyed Lilith before she could be exploited by the people that wanted to bring about the end of the world of Man. If destroying her produced a Quickening like Adam's children did when they were killed, then it's likely that Shinji would obtain greater power that could help him face The Demoness; the Angels were powerful, without any doubt in their abilities, but Adam and Lilith were progenitors, with powers and status greater than any other being on the planet and the known reaches of this universe.

"Shinji, we're terminating the priority of this Angel," he heard Dr. Akagi say to him over the intercom. "Hit the showers and report to Commander Ikari's office for debriefing."

He switched the intercom off and shut the internal systems of the Entry Plug off. Air bubbles escaped his mouth as he exhaled.

 _Dammit,_ he thought.

-x-

"…So, just how dangerous would you suspect this woman to be after what happened to the Angel?" Yui asked Shinji and Akira half an hour later in Gendo's office.

"On a scale of one to one-hundred?" Akira responded, using only her simplicity and fear now that she no longer had the heightened sensory that being immortal gave her. "I would have to say that she scores ninety. Ninety-five just from speaking."

"And if Shinji had defeated this Angel?" Fuyutsuki asked her.

"Then I'd just be exhausted and sleeping it off for a few days," Shinji answered. "I doubt that she's going to be sleeping off anything, though."

"And why is that?" Gendo questioned, wanting to know.

"You do understand that Shinji's not like any other immortals you have met that I associate with or have some sour history with," Akira explained, "and not because of the crazies or cruelties of some predestined, foolish or disturbing fate or belief that others have tried to shackle him with since before my husband and I met him that day in the hospital following the attempt on his life. Child immortals are vastly different from adult immortals…and Shinji is the most unique this world will ever know."

"Consecutive Quickenings, one after another, obtained between short periods of rest leave me fatigued," Shinji added. "The three Angels that arrived in one day, in addition to the last Quickening I obtained through the violent method against Le Femme Aceline, was pretty much like needing to sleep off a hangover or having eaten too much or too little and not getting enough sleep from staying up late. If I'm the only child immortal to have experienced this because I'm the only one left within the Game, then it makes me a very unique case. Adult immortals don't suffer from this drawback because of one simple aspect that sets us apart."

"Which is?" Yui wanted to know.

"Adults are filled out," Akira answered. "There are no gaps in their development. Completely mature and full control of their power. Child immortals are incapable of doing this because they are stunted, trapped in time by the way their mortal lives were ended. Any feats they didn't accomplish prior to their First Death…are feats they can't accomplish, even with immortality."

Put quite simply, because Shinji was still growing, still developing when his maternal aunt killed him after years of stunting his growth, he couldn't physically progress any further now. If his lungs couldn't take in huge amounts of air, then his lungs couldn't take in huge amounts of air, if his leg muscles couldn't take the strain of running for several hours, then they couldn't run for several hours, and if he couldn't properly defend himself against whoever had the edge over him…he was vulnerable.

"But you seem capable of handling yourself," said Fuyutsuki.

"Only because I've been trained and protected by one of the best teachers in existence," he declared; he always had to give Akira credit where it was deserved, even if it was from his point of view. "I wouldn't be where I am today if not for her."

"Well spoken, Shinji," went Takeru.

"The question is," uttered Gendo, "what if you can't fight this woman as a result of this…phenomenon? What were to happen if either of you were…indisposed?"

Shinji and Akira looked at each other before looking back at Gendo.

"Then the Game doesn't end and the Prize can't be claimed," Akira told him. "I have lived with my understanding of the Game and the Rules for so long that it becomes second nature to know what does and does not serve as a loophole of sorts for it. As long as more than two immortals exist, the Game remains in play…and as long as the Game continues to remain in play, nobody can lay claim to the Prize. Right now, there are only four immortals left."

"Two of whom are looking to get out of the Game," Shinji added.

"Your friends?" Takeru asked Akira.

"Yes," she answered him.

"But…won't that leave…just you and The Demoness if they retire?" Yui asked her son.

"It's their choice," he responded. "It's not everyday you get welcomed with the option to throw away your immortality and return to a normal life where you can grow old with the people around you and do other things that give it meaning."

"And you'll be exhausted all over again."

"I'm the only other person that has the power to preserve the lives of other immortals by freeing them from the Game. The Demoness isn't interested in saving anyone, whether they want to escape from the Game or not. In her mind, the only good immortal is one decapitated by her."

-x-

"…So, where were you before the sirens went off this afternoon?" Quentin asked Takuya as they walked down the street, his adopted sister asleep on his back.

"I was grocery shopping," he answered him, holding his small bag of food. "How soon do you suspect you'll be able to hang up your sword?"

"Hopefully, the next time I meet Shinji."

"For your sister's sake?"

"Yes."

"Thanks."

 _Such morality only reminds me of how simple the past was a long, long time ago,_ both men heard a woman's voice in their heads. _It's so simple, it's depressing._

They looked around, but the woman they weren't in sight amongst the people.

 _Don't bother with trying to find me,_ she told them. _I'm nowhere near you. I'm not even eight blocks away. I'm just trying out this power I obtained from one of God's messengers…and it is quite advanced for the human mind. I practically thought that I would go mad trying to comprehend what I could do now…but then I'd be mad to call myself mad. I'm at one of the temples, broadcasting myself to just you two. I've seen such an incredible world of minds that is quite amazing. Do you know how many men in America sleep around with the same women every other and act like they're completely worthless? Very depraved_ _…_ _and very sick._

 _How is this possible?_ Quentin demanded of The Demoness.

 _Oh, come on, Highlander. We live lives that are full of nothing but the impossible. We do things that no mortals can ever achieve. We have powers that they can only dream of having. We're incarnate gods that walk among the insects, and one of us will ever join the ranks of the supreme beings of the universe. I have tasted such power before_ _…_ _and it is something you'll never experience, even if you tried to come after me._

 _Shinji will stop you,_ Takuya insisted.

 _Oh, he'll try. There's no doubt in my mind that he'll do everything in his power to see that I'm kept from winning the Game, but he's a child wracked by the pain inflicted upon by his parents, barely able to escape from them, even when he's with you and the Maternity Samurai, your wife. What chance does he have against the likes of me?_

 _He has friends and family that don't want to hurt him, that want him to decide for himself what will happen and what won't, not because others expect him to make choices he's uncomfortable with making. What do you have at the end of the day, The Demoness? Who do you have at your side at the end of the day, The Demoness? Can you answer?_

There was a brief silence between the three…before a response came.

 _I have only the shadows of how my own life ended,_ The Demoness told the two, _and the boiling disgust of how those of blood cease to see you as their own_ _…_ _even before crossing the thin line between love and hatred. Good day to you._

It felt like whatever connection that existed between them had ended.

"That was weird," said Quentin to Takuya.

"Yeah," Takuya agreed. "Either she was trying to mess with us or she was trying to intimidate us as practice for intimidating Shinji. Either way, this is a whole new level of off-putting bull."

-x-

Inside the Genbu temple, The Demoness sighed as she thought once more about her past…from before she became immortal. If she had the will to smile as she reflected upon her early childhood, she might've…for her former innocence was such a blessing upon her. But then she lost that carefree child she used to be.

 _We were gods once, a long, long time ago,_ she thought as her sword levitated off the ground in front of her as she looked up at the statue of the snake and tortoise. _We lived without wanting! We had all that we needed! There was never a desire for new medicines or a war! Until they got greedy! Until they did what they did that brought about their downfall! And now_ _…_ _there will only be one god on this planet. All other deities, be damned!_

Split! The statue, as though under the influence of The Demoness' rage, split in half and was forced out of the temple interior on opposite sides.

Then she got up and walked away, vacating the temple.

-x-

"So, what will you do, Shinji?" Akira asked as they were in the parking garage at NERV HQ, walking to their Prius.

"Get Jose and Quentin out of the Game," he answered. "I can worry about The Demoness afterwards."

"Save friends and allies first, deal with enemies second."

"Practice morality over delusions of grandeur or godhood."

Getting into the Prius, Akira told Shinji, "I like the way you think. You choose to save the people, regardless of what others believe you should do."

"I wouldn't have a conscience if I didn't try to save people. We might have to kill others that come after us in order to survive, but does that truly make us murderers?"

"No. We're not murderers. We're survivors."

Akira then started the engine and they drove off.

-x-

"…I think Shinji was terrified by what happened," went Fuyutsuki to Takeru, Yui and Gendo in the latter's office after the boy and ancestral grandmother left.

"He was terrified," Takeru confirmed, "and had every right to be. He probably didn't think that any other immortal could obtain a Quickening from an Angel like he could. Knowing that The Demoness now has the power of at least one of them changes things to a degree."

"But Shinji has had more of these…Quickenings from the Angels he's defeated, so shouldn't this make him more…powerful than her?" Yui suggested.

"Power, steel, faith, determination, courage, cunningness, resourcefulness, self-control," Takeru listed off on his fingers. "It takes many of these just to have any chance of winning against any immortal that has been around and has trained for longer than you have. Before he even came to Tokyo-3, he only had obtained five Quickenings. Any number of Quickenings obtained from the five immortals he fought is questionable, but they likely pale in comparison to The Demoness' Quickenings."

"How can you be so sure of that?" Gendo asked him.

"If she's been around for far longer than the rest of us, she could've vanquished countless immortals in her past."

"Except this is just speculation," said Fuyutsuki. "We don't know a thing about her…except that she's viewed as the deadliest of the immortals…and is capable of intimidation just through communication."

"And she can ascertain information from people that know more than she does through the same communication," Yui added.

"What if she couldn't get to him?" Gendo suggested. "What if he were inaccessible?"

The way Gendo saw the situation, as long as The Demoness was unable to fight Shinji, the woman couldn't jeopardize his scenario by endangering the most unusually-necessary asset NERV now had against the Angels.

"You could try, but you can't dictate the Game, Gendo," Takeru told him. "Also, can someone like you really protect anyone like Shinji from a woman like The Demoness? If it came down to the two of them, two of anyone, really, no matter who or where they are, the Game will go to great lengths to bring them together to ensure one of them wins and the other falls."

"Then tell me, Father, what would you recommend?"

This was the first time Gendo, all grown up and with absolutely no need of anything from his old man, ever asked him for advice or suggestions. It was…almost enough to make Takeru feel that there was hope for his son.

Almost enough.

"Whatever events transpire for Shinji within the Game," he uttered, "you should let them unfold however they will…and let Shinji decide how to best approach them. No intervention, no deception, no exploitation of any kind unless he asks for it."

"You mean," went Fuyutsuki in revelation of his suggestion, "we should do nothing but wait for whatever happens to happen?"

"That…or try to persuade Shinji to stay on holy ground where combat is prohibited; The Demoness, no matter how vile she might be, no matter what form of wretched behavior she could demonstrate, will not violate that rule, even to win."

"How do you know she won't try to exploit some kind of loophole?" Yui asked him.

"There aren't any loopholes regarding holy ground. You can't fight any immortal inside a church, inside a shrine, in a cemetery, all of which are blessed, are sacred. If you do, and the other immortal tries to get away out of respect for the Rules, but is forced to fight back to defend themselves, there will be unanticipated consequences for everyone nearby."

"How can you be so sure of this?" Fuyutsuki asked him.

"Immortals have tried to violate this rule in the past. Major earthquakes…volcanic eruptions…violent storms… Shinji won't fight anyone on holy ground around here, not if he has people he doesn't want to see get hurt or worse."

 _Hard to believe that conflicts between immortals on holy ground can cause natural disasters to occur,_ thought Yui, though she was a little put off by Takeru's assumption that Shinji wouldn't fight on holy ground if he had people he didn't want to see harmed (this was mainly because, as she still found it uneasy to deal it, this list of people he didn't want to see harmed likely excluded his parents).

-x-

Now Shinji had more reason to be concerned about The Demoness after Takuya and Quentin got back from out in the city after the Angel attack. With knowledge of the woman now utilizing the power to broadcast her mind across a large distance without needing to travel physically, it made him worry what else The Demoness was capable of that might've been augmented by her Angel Quickening. The fact that they didn't know what sort of powers she might've possessed over the ages was what made The Demoness feel like such an intimidating threat to them.

"I'll be honest here," said Jose to them when he was informed of the telepathic broadcast, "Shinji, you are more likely to have the edge against The Demoness. I've had only one-hundred-thirteen Quickenings in my past, but however many Quickenings those people has in their lives, they're yours."

"One-hundred-forty-seven," added Quentin as he sat on the sofa beside his sleeping sister, "including my most recent one. Whatever they're worth."

"Then we should get to it as soon as possible," Shinji responded.

Ring-ring-ring! Shinji's phone rang and he answered it.

"Hello?" He greeted.

"Hey, Shinji, it's Kensuke," one of his friends responded on the other end. "I'm at Toji's with Hikari, and we were checking in on you after what happened earlier today. Are you alright?"

"I'm okay," he told him.

"You're sure? I mean, the Angel of the attack today, it didn't cause you any problems?"

"It didn't cause me problems because I didn't deal with it. The person responsible for slaying it this time…was The Demoness."

Three different gasps were heard on the other end by Shinji.

"The Demoness?!" He heard Hikari's voice. "You mean to say that she now has the power of an Angel in her possession?"

"That's right."

"How is that possible? I thought you were the only one able to beat an Angel and take its power because you pilot that Eva."

"Apparently, anyone immortal and involved in the Game can receive a Quickening from the Angels, regardless of the circumstances. The Angel attacked The Demoness and paid the price for doing so. Its defeat meant the forfeiture of its abilities to the victor. So far, it seems that she's only capable of telepathy across vast distances. We don't know what else she could be capable of."

"Dude, you have to be more careful outside now," he heard Toji's voice now. "If anyone should beat the rest of the Angels left, it should be you, someone willing to diffuse the situation with the least degree of collateral damage and risk to the people."

"Thank you, Toji."

Hanging up, the Immortal Ikari sighed as he pondered which of the remaining Angels of Adam's brood would appear next…or if he should try to destroy Lilith, since her destruction would mean no Human Instrumentality Project for anyone, no artificial evolution that regresses all of mankind back to a primordial fluid, and no end of the world in one sense.

"Shinji?" He heard Akira as she sat away from him in another chair.

"When you exclude Adam and Lilith, there are only three Angels left now," he explained. "When you include all of mankind, there's four, only one of them isn't really much of a risk factor."

"And when you choose to view all of mankind as just being a legion of diverse individuals scattered around the globe?" Quentin asked.

"People are just people. Good, bad, indifferent, detached, crazy, sick, deviant, living, dead and everything else."

"Yep," Jose agreed.

"We should go get the Quickenings done now. I can afford to sleep them off."

-x-

The last time she ever saw Lilith, Yui had used part of her mass to create Unit-01. Now, back in Terminal Dogma after so many years, she was left to wonder what her son was going to do once all the Angels were defeated. Even though she had some doubts that he really knew everything about everything relating to NERV, Yui couldn't shake off that Shinji had his own agenda and was going to do whatever he could to make sure it was fulfilled.

"He is increasingly unpleasant," she heard a girl's voice, and turned around to see Rei Ayanami.

"You mean Shinji?" She asked her. "Yeah, I hear that he has a low opinion of some of the people here."

"You're his mother…and yet, he views you the same way as he views Commander Ikari."

"Being separated for over ten years can do that. Have you…spoken with him since…that night?"

Rei lifted her right hand up and examined the palm that was free of the minor cut Shinji gave her…and felt disgust towards him.

"I have not," she answered him. "He is not someone to be taken lightly. And he does not follow orders from his superiors. He deviates from procedure constantly, putting NERV under pressure to manage what some are calling a wild child."

Even after seeing her son in action, Yui couldn't condemn Shinji for his unwillingness to listen to anyone he didn't want to listen. His care and protection by his ancestral paternal grandmother probably had something to do with his behavior. That…or everything from being walked out on by both his parents, the cruelty inflicted upon him by her relatives…and the fact that he had to do whatever he had to in order to survive in a shadow world where others just like him would be out to get him for something he had no awareness of until he had been educated and taught to harness this power he had.

"But so long as the Angels are dealt with, we can tolerate this behavior," she told Rei.

"And what after?" Rei asked.

"What after, indeed."

-x-

"…So, The Demoness seems to be more dangerous than she initially appeared to be, huh?" Hikari asked Toji and Kensuke as they walked down the street to the pig-tailed girl's apartment; it was actually Toji's idea to escort Hikari home.

"Seems likely," Toji responded, looking up at the sky as it darkened. "We only met her once…and just thinking about her name still gives me the creeps."

"Totally," added Kensuke. "How can a woman like her strike fear into people without ever actually doing anything to cause you personal harm?"

"Just being intimidating is sometimes sufficient," the pigtailed girl explained.

"That's hardly sufficient, Ms. Horaki," the three heard the voice of the woman that frightened them. "It's not nearly enough to be intimidating. One has to embrace what they've become, all that they've become…in order to be intimidating. If you can't embrace what you have become, then you're not intimidating in the least."

They turned around at the alleyway they passed by…and saw The Demoness, dressed in a blue and purple yukata that did nothing to hide her choker or make her seem less dangerous.

"Oh," Hikari gasped, holding Toji's left hand.

"Oh, fear not," The Demoness told them, standing against the wall. "You three aren't immortals, so you're safe from me. Not that I'd be interested in any of you to begin with. Your friend, however, the Immortal Ikari, he has my attention. Tell me, what do you three think of him? What is he to you? What are you to him?"

"Why do you want to know?" Kensuke asked her.

"Is it a crime to be curious about someone you must eventually face? Is it truly devious for me to know what others think of a little boy that isn't little by choice, but because a relative that crossed a line that shouldn't have been crossed to begin with? You tell me."

The Demoness performed a curtsy in front of the three, as if actually meaning a respectful greeting.

"What is there to say about Shinji?" Toji responded. "I have nothing but respect for him. I can overlook whatever flaws he has or anything he's done that would label him bad."

The Demoness looked at him and uttered, "You see him as a tiny hero because he saved the life of your sister from the first Angel that attacked the city, the same day he arrived to meet his disgrace of a father. Your admiration towards him is very simple-minded…and very understandable."

Hikari got worried when she looked at her, as if having a feeling what she was going to say or think.

"Heh," the immortal woman snickered. "If he feels he can prevent the cruelest of fates from ever occurring as they had in one other life he feels he had lived, you want to believe in him so that you can have a chance with your crush, Ms. Horaki. Love… Those that feel it want to believe in it."

"Right now, I can't tell what's scarier," went Kensuke, "the fact that an Angel attacked and Shinji didn't deal with it…or that you were somehow able to defeat it and now have obtained greater power."

"You can view both as being equally scary if you choose," she told him, "but you can deliver this message to the Immortal Ikari if it makes you feel some ease. These…Angels that remain…are his to deal with. The one whose power became mine…is all I'll take. I want him to be at his strongest…for when I come for him. And let him know…that I look forward to the day that happens."

"Why? Wouldn't it make more sense to want more power?" Toji asked, questioning her logic.

"Oh, I'm already strong enough to deal with the Immortal Ikari…and anyone else that dares to get in my way. But I want the boy to be at his best, otherwise the victory won't have any value. The glory is only at its greatest…when it feels most earned, that it wasn't handed over without so much as a fight."

"And there's no doubt in your mind that there's a chance you could lose to him?" Kensuke questioned.

"If I felt any fear of the Immortal Ikari or any adversary, for that matter, I wouldn't be out looking for them every now and then. I'd be hiding away from them on holy ground. But I am The Demoness. I must be without a shred of fear. A warrior and survivor, unfettered…by any conscience, remorse…or delusions of morality that did nothing to help me when the past turned to crap."

It was something about the way she said that last part that caught the Horaki girl's curiosity. Being a warrior and survivor without any remorse or delusions of morality that did nothing to help her when her past changed.

"Every immortal suffers from the inescapable agony of how they fell from their mortal grace and made a pawn in a game that expects nothing but the best from the one left out of the many and few. In the end, there can be only one. In the end, there will be only one. Only the strongest and most deserving will be that one."

The Demoness then walked away, leaving the three be.

Toji looked to Hikari and Kensuke, whom said nothing.

Hikari returned her gaze to The Demoness…and saw something that was impossible to comprehend. On the woman's back, possibly some sort of illusion or figment of the imagination, a large pair of white wings appeared and spread out to an amazing thirty feet in length before disappearing, giving the impression that the immortal was truly some sort of angel from beyond this plane of existence.

 _Kami,_ she thought.

-x-

On the bridge in Central Dogma, the NERV technicians seemed to only be capable of registering the unusual electrical phenomenon for just a few seconds, but that was long enough for them to ascertain the location of where it was happening. It was about a mile outside of Tokyo-3, and it was similar to the other phenomena that most had recognized as similar to the ones that the Third Child was present for in Unit-01.

"Do you recognize this, Takeru?" Misato asked the former immortal grandfather of Shinji.

"Yeah," he answered her. "That's a Quickening, only bigger than a regular one."

"An Angel?"

"No, from a regular immortal. Probably the only other two that Akira knows, retiring from the Game through Shinji's aid."

"Meaning what, exactly now?"

"The Game only has two immortals left. Shinji…and The Demoness. A boy trapped in the body of a child whose growth was stunted…and a woman that can't be compared to any other in history, past and present. This brings the Game closer to its conclusion…but it also brings more danger because there's no telling which of the two will win."

"Yet, you say that if a good immortal wins, then it's a bright future for everyone," went Fuyutsuki to him, present in the chamber with Gendo and Yui, "and if it's someone like The Demoness…"

"Then everyone will be at her mercy," added Yui.

"No predestined decisions," Takeru sighed, "no foreseeable outcomes, no do-over if something goes wrong for you. It's either Shinji or The Demoness. Him…or her."

And the worst part about any of it was that they couldn't interfere. They just had to wait and see what happens in the end.

But Gendo, still wanting to lay claim to this mysterious Prize that would belong to the victor of the Game, refused to be obedient towards the Rules. If he could obtain it, then there was no telling what he would be capable of.

 _If you so much as try to get in the way, you will suffer irrevocable consequences, you foolish man,_ he heard a woman's voice in his head. _The Demoness will be relentless towards your punishment. Don't interfere with the nature of the Game. Your complete lack of concern for your son's wellbeing will be part of the reason you and your precious wife will lose him, even before the Game ends…and there is no reconciliation within reach for any of you, and that is a fact._

To be continued…

A/N: I bet none of you were expecting that. I know I certainly didn't; the story just took its turn and now things are intensifying. The Demoness has the power of the Angel of Birds in her possession. What do you suppose happened to her to make her this way? Anyone?


	14. Coping

Creation began on 12-17-17

Creation ended on 12-27-17

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Immortal Ikari: Coping

It felt like a dream, but it felt like he was seeing into the eyes of someone similar to himself, only more alive in a strange way. Or rather, he was seeing into multiple eyes of young men that were similar to himself.

"Why do I…" Shinji went, seeing a vast landscape shaped like a massive city. "Why do I…feel so scattered across the place? And who is… Who is calling out to me?"

The setting was in the night, the lights of the city illuminated various things that looked as though they didn't belong, but made themselves known, and the little immortal saw, on several rooftops, several young men as they looked out into the unknown.

Slash! One was dressed for a Japanese funeral, but sporting several guns and a gauntlet on his right arm, wielding a kama sickle, almost like a gunslinging samurai of sorts.

Clang! Another was dressed in dark robes, wielding a large staff with a tiger and dragon on it, like some type of mage.

Whoosh! Another young that was dressed in casual clothes, wielding a sword with a type of dragon motif suddenly appeared, emerging from a rip in the fabric of space.

Thunk! An older man, dressed in a ripped shawl and baggy pants, wielded a large sword and one of his arms appeared to be cybernetic.

Click! Another young man, dressed in school uniform, checked his weapon, a pistol with a Taoist symbol on both sides of the handle.

There were others, but they were obscured by the darkness around them.

"Are you ready to protect your part of existence?" The boy in robes with the staff asked, and Shinji got the strangest feeling…that he knew these men from somewhere before…and that he was holding his sword in his left hand.

"What is going on?" He asked them.

"Fate," the boy dressed in funeral attire explained cryptically, sounding detached from any sense of emotions. "Our fates, your fate, and the fate of others if we fail."

Then, they all jumped up into the air, taking off like rockets without any fiery propulsion.

Shinji jumped, too, and felt like this was beyond anything he had ever dreamt about in his past.

-x-

"…The only real benefit these Angel attacks have on the schools is that the students get the next day off to recover from being in the shelters," said Kensuke to Akira as he, Toji and Hikari came over to the Rokubungi apartment the day after their unexpected encounter with The Demoness, sitting on the floor mats as the former immortal grandmother of Shinji served them tea.

"Maybe, but it hampers your education further than the lack of adequate teachers do," Akira informed him; these days, the teachers that were too elderly would just drone about Second Impact and the aftermath to the point that other topics of history, science, even basic mathematics were ignored by the curriculum to varying degrees, something that some of the students seemed to indulge in by doing other things on their computers or tablets so long as they weren't caught. "So, what happened last night that you couldn't explain to me over the phone?"

Hikari, sipping her tea, set the cup down and uttered, "We saw The Demoness last night on our way home. She wanted us to give a message to Shinji, that the remaining Angels were his to do away with."

"Kami," went Takuya in response to this discovery. "She didn't…try anything on you three, did she? She didn't have her sword with her or some type of weapon?"

"Her voice itself is a weapon all on its own," said Toji to him. "A warrior and survivor, unfettered by any conscience, remorse or delusions of morality that didn't help her."

"What?" Akira asked him, confused.

"It was something she said last night," Kensuke explained. "The good qualities of people, their morality or remorse, didn't do anything for The Demoness when she said her past turned to crap."

"That wouldn't be a unique case; most immortal pasts turn to crap when they become immortal. There's no way to deny it."

"Except…it was the way she said it," Hikari told them. "Tell me, does cynical behavior demonstrated by any immortal affects their memories of the past before they became immortal?"

"No," Akira answered. "You can be cynical for eight-hundred years, and your memories of your past, your childhood, your relocation, anything, is unaffected."

"What if there's more to how The Demoness became immortal? The violent death that triggers immortality always leaves a scar that doesn't heal completely, right?"

"Even I'm not that desperate to try and find hers."

"Stab or gunshot-based deaths are the most effective at triggering the rebirth of an immortal," said Takuya, "assuming she was from a time when such methods were available."

"Primitives used arrows and spears before the development of swords and other bladed weapons," Kensuke explained. "It would be an interesting topic if we knew more about who The Demoness was before she…"

He was cut off by the sound of a door sliding open and a small scuffling of footsteps followed by another sliding door in the hallway.

"How is Shinji doing, by the way?" Toji asked Akira and Takuya.

"He did a Double Quickening last night to get Jose and Quentin out of the Game," Takuya explained. "The process wiped him out completely. These are becoming heavier hitters for him."

"But he will recover from them in due time," Akira assured them.

Clatter! The sound of something spilling over in the bathroom caught their attention and they got up to make sure that Shinji was fine.

Apparently, Shinji, despite being able to handle his business, fell over to floor and knocked over the cup of toothbrushes and toothpaste, falling back to sleep with wet hands.

"Heavier hitters, indeed," went Hikari as Akira picked him up. "He seems so helpless now."

"He's the only one left that can go up against The Demoness and win the Game," Akira expressed. "But yes, he is helpless right now."

-x-

The Taoist Building gave the greatest view of the entire city, but for The Demoness, it gave her newfound power of telepathy a sharper and more expansive degree of awareness. She discovered that while she was able to travel through her telepathy across region, she needed to be in places high off the ground to get further than three regions; she was still breaking in her power and exploring its benefits.

 _Show me more wonders of the mind,_ she thought as a breeze swept past her neck.

Her eyes widened as she felt her mind traverse across the whole of Tokyo-3 from where she stood upon the rooftop. She saw men, women and children as far as the eye could see, within apartments, schools, swimming pools, office buildings…and deep underground, as well. Simple-minded pawns, helpless workers, foolish scientists and a megalomaniac that had no hope of redemption, even with his foolish wife at his side. The Demoness could see into their minds without any restrictions, explore their pasts and involve herself within their conversations as though she were actually there.

 _Oh, and what is this we have here?_ She wondered, seeing through the eyes of a woman with faux-blond hair, looking at three constructs that stuck out of the floor. _They're called the MAGI, huh? After the three wise men that visited the so-called Messiah? How disgraceful. You foolish mortals will do anything to pervert and disrespect the concepts of what you call religion. But a supercomputer system like this has its uses. It's not the name of the thing, but the way the thing works for you._

She mentally traveled past the faux-blond woman and right to Yui Ikari herself, seeing into her mind, knowing all that she knew up to the present.

 _No wonder her son despises her and her husband,_ she realized, bothered by the level of depravity in the woman that once faked her death to play the role of a false deity. _These Evangelions being false gods, worthless copies of so-called higher beings, meant to outlast everything and be an eternal testament of our existence. If you wanna believe in a false god so much, lady, I suggest you bow to your inner demons. The world has no such place for any false gods._

She then found Gendo and decided to explore his and Fuyutsuki's minds at the same time. While the elder was a very humble man with no desires to see the world end, he was still in league with some people that were willing to murder everyone in existence as long as they got what they wanted, and he knew the same was true of his former student. And as for Gendo, she could only find him to be not only a foolish man, but one that knew not his place in this world he had helped to cripple alongside his wife and the people they served, this…SEELE. So long as he lived, he was doomed to fail at any attempts to come out on top of everyone around him, whether they knew of him or not.

 _And you think you can claim the Prize? Of all the mortals I've encountered during this century, Gendo Rokubungi-Ikari, you are by far the most pathetic. No matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, nothing associated to the Game will be yours to obtain. It's either the Immortal Ikari…or I._

Then, appearing as an unseen projection of herself, she stood on the bridge in Central Dogma, looking down at the people that sat at consoles and typed down random codes. She then levitated to the top of MAGI Casper and focused on spreading her consciousness across the entire base and further out of the region. Tapping into the total sum of the power she received from the Angel of Birds, The Demoness let her fury be known in such a way that would rattle the people.

-x-

Shinji didn't feel right as he tossed and turned in his futon. There seemed to be something amiss in the waking world just outside his dreams. Even as he found himself back on the rooftops of this vast city he was in during the darkest night, he felt a sense of dread that wasn't like that of a nightmare. In some ways, it felt like a revelation of power being unleashed…through a Quickening.

"I've never felt power like this before," he uttered. "Ever."

The night sky then turned purple with pink stars!

"It's always the same," he heard The Demoness' voice, "and now all of this. Mortals that fell from grace…fall even further."

He turned around and saw the woman, dressed in flowing, dark robes that gave her a religious sense of aesthetics, but on her back were…large, black wings that were like those of a dragon's or some sort of demonic creature, with feathers falling off in decay.

-x-

"That's odd," went Toji, reaching into his coat pocket and pulling out his phone.

"What's wrong?" Takuya asked him.

"My phone turned on by itself."

Kensuke and Hikari felt their phones vibrating, as well, which made no sense since they both turned theirs off, too.

"They just turned themselves back on?" Hikari questioned, looking at the unusual text message that was sent to her. "Oh, Kami."

"The Demoness hacked my phone?" Kensuke showed them the name on his phone.

Takuya looked at his phone, as did Akira, and found the same text from The Demoness.

"How is this possible?" Akira wondered, and then called NERV HQ.

The text they all received read, _ALWAYS THE SAME WITH YOU MORTALS_.

-x-

The alarms went off in response to some sort of digital assault on the MAGI themselves.

"Who'd be crazy to attack the MAGI?!" Misato demanded as Ritsuko checked the source of the attacker, whoever they were.

"There's no digital source," Ritsuko revealed. "There's no way to undo the hack."

On the screens throughout the chamber, a text-like message started displaying itself to them. It read, _THANK YOU FOR SHOWING ME THE WAY IN_ , and it was sent by someone calling themselves The Demoness, which confused most of the personnel.

"It's on my phone," said one of the female personnel.

"Same for my tablet," added a male personnel member.

Everyone's phones and tablets were displaying the same text message.

 _IT'S ALWAYS THE SAME WITH YOU MORTALS_ , their screens all rewrote themselves.

"We have a serious problem now," Ritsuko updated. "Whoever's hacking the MAGI without any technological means is now using it."

"To do what?" Gendo demanded.

"To connect and expand."

-x-

Somehow, she was in between the three realms, the material realm, the psychological realm…and the digital realm. The Demoness felt everywhere, in the minds of everyone she could reach, no matter where they were, be it on planes thirty-five-thousand feet in the air…or in submarines over five-thousand meters underwater. She literally felt everywhere, with everyone. The Demoness had achieved a sense of ubiquity through the power of the Angel of Birds.

 _Always the same, and now all of this,_ she thought as she stood still atop the Taoist Building, seeing men in submarines designed to carry nuclear weapons as defensive measures against other nations, and pushed them to do her bidding. _We have evolved so much and yet we still cling to our carnal impulses. But now_ _…_ _There are no more stones to throw._ _No more catapults. No more spears. No more bows and arrows. No more swords._

She saw the men take their access keys and codes and activate their defense systems with new coordinates to surprise the masses. Spreading herself further, she saw men in comfy chairs elsewhere that she pushed to do the same, and they were enslaved to her will.

 _No more explosives! No more wars! No more government systems! No more_ _…_ _No more peace treaties._

-x-

"Aaaahh!" Shinji screamed as he awoke from his nightmare, seeing the city he had been in set ablaze and the buildings falling.

He scrambled out of bed and grabbed his sword and tanto.

"Shinji?!" Akira came in and saw him with a panicked look on his face.

"The Demoness," he gasped. "She's doing something major."

-x-

On the other side of the world, in the Pentagon in the USA, several alarms directed towards the release of the nation's nuclear arsenal.

"What the Hell's going on here?" One of the men in charge demanded, seeing the locations of where their nukes were. "Who's accessing the codes? Who's turning the keys?"

"The men are," another man answered, just as confused.

-x-

 _So much faith in your tools_ _…_ _and your_ _…_ _machines,_ The Demoness snickered, seeing through the eyes of various people beyond Japan (and including Japan) watch as several missiles fired from afar, heading into the air. _You always think that they won't betray you, but you have no control over them. You have no control over anything. You might think you do_ _…_ _but no one ever does._

-x-

"…That was the Committee," went Fuyutsuki to Gendo and Yui, having been contacted some people from the UN. "They've lost contact with all their subs and stations. Japan, Russia, Germany, North Korea, France, India, Pakistan, China, everyone with access to nukes has them in the air."

"But…where's the target?" Yui wanted to know, seeing the holographics displaying the missiles and their current trajectory. "Where are they all heading?"

"Up," said Misato, seeing that there was no deviation in the trajectory. "They're all going up."

A new text hit everyone's phones and tablets from The Demoness.

"What the Hell is this?!" Hyuga questioned.

"We can fire our bullets like how we would our arrows and stones from the Tower of Babel," Maya read on her tablet, "but we can never strike at the gods that watch us stumble over again and again?"

"Some religious fanatic?" Shigeru suggested, and then received another text that read, _THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE CREATURES YOU CALL ANGELS. THIS IS ABOUT PEOPLE_ _…_ _AND HOW FAR THEY HAVE FALLEN FROM THE GRACE OF THEIR GODS._

-x-

The Demoness then ceased the use of her new power and returned to being conscious on the roof of the Taoist Building, greeted with the faraway sight of several white streaks in the air, leading into the unknown.

"Glorious," she told herself, and then walked away. "Truly an act of one meant to change the world into one's ideal vision."

She would let some time pass until it sunk in for the people of the world that their greatest weapons had been disposed of. She never liked nuclear deterrents of these sorts, anyway, as they always left certain places inhospitable for generations yet to come. If she came out on top in the end, she would remove all other superpowers and make herself the sole superpower in existence…but only if she came out on top in the Game, which she needed to end. This was merely a small sample of the power she possessed.

-x-

"This is messed up," said Kensuke as he and the others looked outside the patio at the sky. "Those missiles were nukes."

"But they were all going up," went Hikari. "They didn't turn or anything."

"I doubt we just went and declared war on anyone," added Toji.

"Nobody went to war with anyone," Akira told them.

"It was The Demoness," stated Shinji to them. "She just showed the world what she was now capable of doing…and she chose to deprive every nuclear-powered nation of their most dangerous weapons…simply because she could."

"No nuclear missiles, no nuclear deterrents," Takuya sighed. "Nobody feels threatened by radiation causing cancer or some sort of mutation."

But as much as Hikari, Toji and Kensuke wanted to suggest that this was just The Demoness sending a message to the world that she might've had a way to deal with the way the governments and nations dealt with things, the teens had to look at Shinji and see that it was anything but that. No, this was something far worse than any thought of war.

"So, what now?" Hikari asked them.

"We should make sure that you three get home," answered Shinji; he was worried for his friends now due to the power The Demoness displayed in this move she made upon the world. "I'd rather be safe than sorry regarding a woman we know next to nothing about."

-x-

"…Okay, can we even be certain that what happened was all because of this…this woman that calls herself The Demoness?" Ritsuko asked Gendo as he, Fuyutsuki, Misato, Yui and she were in Gendo's office later that evening. "How can someone like this…just access the MAGI without any technological means and cause every nation to dispose of their nuclear arsenal?"

"And has she declared war on anyone?" Misato questioned. "Is she at war with anyone?"

"Not unless the person she's at war with stands less than two feet in height, looks like a toddler or midget, and rides a minibike and carries a tanto and a sword associated with the Chinese instead of the Japanese," said Gendo to them.

"That's a large accusation for doing something so extreme," went Fuyutsuki; he felt that depriving the world of nuclear missiles was not the way to get the attention of a fellow immortal that was trapped in the body of a small child due to being attacked by their maternal aunt after being slowly poisoned. "Still, we have nothing to back this up. We can't even prove this was The Demoness' doing, even if she was able to text the whole of Central Dogma and hack the MAGI."

"You make this woman seem like she's more dangerous than the Angels are," Ritsuko expressed her opinion to Gendo, Fuyutsuki and Yui, since they had seen her before.

"Maybe not in the same degree as the Angels," Yui informed her, "but she's more dangerous than any person that has ever existed throughout known history. She might have not done anything to solidify her place in history because anyone in her position has to live in the shadows, but she can be frightening. And if she did do this, then she's all the more dangerous now."

"We might need to relocate the Third Child for his own protection from her," Gendo recommended.

"It goes against the Rules of the Game, Ikari," Fuyutsuki reminded him of what they learned from Takeru. "Mortals aren't allowed to interfere in the affairs of immortals, no matter what the circumstances are."

"Except this isn't just some immortal," Yui told him. _This is Shinji, who might not stand any chance against someone like this._

-x-

Toji, Hikari and Kensuke couldn't believe that just eight minutes into the drive to Hikari's home, Shinji ups and nods off; apparently, he hadn't gotten enough rest from the two Quickenings he had obtained from Quentin and Jose the previous day.

"This doesn't change the fact that Shinji's very protective of you three," Akira told the teens as she drove the Prius down the street. "I doubt that The Demoness frightens him directly as much as she frightens him with what she could do to us if she chose to."

"Uh, what of this theory we have that Shinji's lived different lives from this one, like a multiverse?" Toji asked her.

"I honestly believe in the theory," she told him, "and not because of watching films like _The One_. I don't say this to anyone, not even my husband, who was with me that day, but Shinji saved my life once when we were heading home from a movie at night. I saw a glimpse into a different life that I'm positive I had lived that seemed to involve Shinji. I wasn't over two-thousand years old, but still quite old…and I looked to be in my late-twenties. It was just the way I saw this glimpse that hurt."

"How did you see your glimpse?" Hikari questioned. "I mean, if it's alright that I ask."

"It's alright. It's not easy to forget…let alone live much after. Shinji and I were attacked by two immortals that came looking for him after they found out he was a child immortal. They were a married pair that hailed from different time periods. How they got together, I don't ask Shinji. All I know is that when the wife got the edge on me because both she and her husband disregarded one of the Rules. They were willing attack the same immortal at the same time, so long as one of them got the Quickening. It was the only time I ever got defeated while I was trying to protect one of my own."

The teens were in awe at such a revelation. Never in a lifetime would they have ever suspected or even guessed that Akira once lost her head due to protecting Shinji.

"But…if you were defeated," went Kensuke, "how are you alive?"

"Shinji fought and defeated the wife after defeating the husband," she explained. "According to Takuya, Shinji wrapped a wire around his head and pulled like there was no tomorrow, taking his head off. Then, something happened with the Quickening. It was only for a short while, but Shinji seemed older, taller, like he progressed to where he should've been in his physical development, which was around twelve at the time. He fought the wife and pinned her behind a Dumpster and took her head off. None of us were sure how it happened, but as he received her Quickening, Shinji just…brought me back. He somehow used the Quickening and restored me to life. I'm forever grateful to him for that. He saved me."

Hikari looked in the backseat at the sleeping Shinji sitting in between Toji and Kensuke.

"Incredible," Toji expressed. "It's a…a miracle."

 _Probably the only one I'd ever get from another immortal,_ Akira thought, looking at Shinji through the rear view mirror. "Yeah, it was a miracle. But after that night, I decided that Shinji was more than capable of protecting himself against other immortals if he ever came across those that were a threat to his life. However, that didn't mean I couldn't continue protecting him as his guardian, which was different from my position as his teacher."

"Bending rules and exploiting loopholes," Hikari stated. "You're his relative, first and foremost, and his teacher second."

"Yes, exactly, Ms. Horaki. Thank you."

Out on the streets and sidewalks, very few people were seen, possibly the majority staying indoors to avoid potential riots or panic attacks or even just waiting on the news reports for what happened today.

"Let's see if anyone's talking," Akira sighed and turned on the radio.

"…And it's still pandemonium and confusion everywhere, including here in Japan," a female voice uttered. "Nobody is sure as to what caused this phenomenon to occur. Was it the work of a secret group with no allegiance to any nation or government? A cult? Or even an act of the gods themselves? A declaration of war or peace? Nobody knows for certain, not even the people responsible for firing the missiles into orbit. Another mystery is that at around the same time, various phones and tablets all received the same test messages from someone who appears to be taking credit for the deprivation of the world's nuclear arsenal. Someone calling themselves The Demoness. Who is The Demoness? What is their agenda? What are their demands, if any? And how were they able to pull off such a synchronized move everywhere at the same time?"

"She has everyone freaked," Toji stated.

"Everyone's scared," added Kensuke. "They don't know what will happen next."

Right now, the three teens felt that Shinji was lucky. He could just sleep until he was rested and know a semblance of ignorance. Except that when he does wake up, he'll worry again and be stressed trying to resolve the matter with The Demoness. For now, all they could was wait and see what would happen.

For now, they would have to cope.

To be continued…

A/N: I'll stop here. I'm on my way to the movies. Peace.


	15. Angels and Demons, Fallen Ages

Creation began on 12-27-17

Creation ended on 12-28-17

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Immortal Ikari: Angels and Demons, Fallen Ages

The Demoness had her doubts about her extended stay in the hotel now. It was the first time she ever had doubts about staying in one place longer than she expected to be. It wasn't that she was concerned about other people wanting to use the suite she was in; she had paid in advanced and if anyone had an issue with her extended stay, she could exploit the power of the Angel of Birds against them to suit her needs. No, her doubts were based on the fact that her only enemy left within the Game was the Immortal Ikari, a child immortal, very simple and easy prey for her, but she chose not to go after him until the remaining Angels were disposed of by him and he had obtained their powers, leaving her, more or less, with nothing to do that would consume her time.

 _And yet, what is time to an immortal?_ She thought, sitting on the bed, looking at the flat screen television for the news. _Now, I can't help but recall how I used to just worry about seeing someone on time for the most trivial of things. Back then, those were simpler times. It was a simpler life_ _…_ _when there was no need to cross the forbidden lines that violate the sanctity of the mind, body and soul._

The news was still on the major and critical loss of the world's nuclear arsenal. While it didn't really bother her like it did most people, she wondered how far she could've gone with what she did.

Her left eye shifted towards the windows and at a woman of the forty-fifty age level, with long, flowing hair of auburn, emerald eyes and dressed in flowing robes of pink and white. Her vacant expression shifted to one of rage at the sight of her.

"What the Hell do you want?" She asked the woman.

"Now, now, is that any way to talk to me?" The woman responded, suddenly away from the windows and sitting on the table beside the wall-mounted television.

"You're insignificant. You don't matter…and I find your presence to be purely dreadful."

"Dreadful is to those who believe in there being fates far worse than the ones they believe to the worst of any that do exist. Take what you've done, for example. In one sense, you've installed a state of fear upon the world, and in another, you've cleansed it of its great poison…if only for a brief period."

"Your voice is a miasma that could leave me choking unnecessarily for fresh air. You're here for less than three minutes, and I already grow weary of you. Go away."

"How can I go away?" She questioned, as if truly needing an answer from her. "How can I leave you…when you know for a fact that I'm not even here?"

The Demoness could've reached for her sword, but it would've been pointless to do so. Whoever this woman was to her, she wasn't truly there; The Demoness was engaged for the first time with an echo of her past, a basic representation of what she perceived to be the source of what had been the most unforgiving period of her former life. She was nothing more…than the shadow of a memory of anguish, despair and an unwanted symbolization of everything that was wrong with her life, past and present, no matter how many times she was forced to abandon it all.

"It's a real shame, you know," the woman said. "You had the most meaningful name that represented that which was most cherished."

The Demoness' left eyebrow raised up as she responded with contempt towards her.

"That name is of no meaning to me," she told her. "You don't keep a name that doesn't represent the path you're left to take. To move on, to sever all ties with the past, you must cast aside that which became your undoing…and that's the only real advice you imparted me when you committed your crime. The unforgiving actions of the fallen ones."

The woman had moved from the stand over to standing in front of her.

"You can't undo the past, no matter what you do," she told The Demoness.

"I don't seek to undo the past," she explained. "I seek to recreate it, remove the flaws, erase the errors that led to its ends."

"You will try…but all you will do…is hurt even more."

"Oh, you're not one to talk about hurt. Hurt is something that only living people, people with hearts are capable of feeling. You're not alive, anymore. You haven't been for over… Not for a long time. One of the few things I consider a blessing, thank you very much."

"You may think you know what you're doing, but it's not going to end the way you wish things had back then, child. Lines were crossed and the dominoes were set to fall the second you made your choice to end things that night."

Grip. The Demoness grasped her sword hilt, momentarily forgetting that the woman in front of her wasn't truly there as she glared up at her.

"I'm not a child, anymore, and you lost any right to address me as such," she told the apparition. "You and the people you let do what they did to me set this whole thing with the Game in motion, and I will end it on my terms. You can haunt me from the subconscious sidelines all you want, but that's all you can do. I'm in control now. I ended things back then, and we both know they could've gotten much worse had I not been left to wander the Earth for over ten-thousand years because of you."

"Still, you blame me for your actions."

"We both know that your own history is beyond being laudable and can never be exonerated."

As she got up off the bed, the woman followed her into the bathroom.

"All I'm going to say is that that child could be the one that defeats you," she told The Demoness. "I can be more than just a representation of your past gone wrong, a memory of the one you hold responsible for your shame, your sadness and rage. I could very well be an embodiment of how you overestimate your own abilities and underestimate the abilities of your adversaries. This young man, this…Shinji Ikari that addresses himself as the Immortal Ikari as a form of intimidation to you that arouses your hunger for what we could never satiate for you back then when we made you what you are. He could be the one that gives you the perfect fight, that beats you…and win the Game."

The Demoness now stood in front of the mirror, looking like she was about to have a violent reaction to something or someone.

"I refuse to believe that I could be beaten by some child I feel is a shadow or cracked reflection to myself and what I had to go through all those millennia ago. The very first of the immortals…against the very last. Both of whom fell from grace at the hands of misbegotten ties!"

"You can't escape what we thought we were doing back then, my child. We thought we were helping you. There was something in you I saw as special. I let them bring it out for a benevolent purpose that would change our world. Even after you turned your back on us, I still believed in what you were once upon a time. You were our light, our hope. I still see you as who you once were. Please, don't bury that once more, my Angelus."

Turning to face her once more, the immortal woman raised up her sword and expressed, "Angelus? From one of the many ancient languages that would become the language that is known as Latin today meaning 'The Angel', a messenger sent from the celestial realms above us to watch over the realm of mortals and to protect them from the poison of darkness. Angelus, the name you and your one and only love gave to your only child. I'm going to tell you the exact same thing I told you that night you became a memory deserving of being forgotten. Angelus, The Angel, your daughter…died when you made your choice to turn her out. She fell from grace, cast out of the celestial masters' domain because she became corrupted with the poison that was the unforgiving burden of mortals, including the relentlessness of their seven unjust desires. The Angel, whose wings became stained with the darkness that was too much for her soul to endure without paying the ultimate price that paid for by the one that opened her body up for her to emerge into this world. The woman that was birthed into existence to take her place is the twisted outcome of the choice you made. The Angel that became one with the greatest sin that is the grand hunger and desire for vengeance. My name…is The Demoness, and as you can see, I'm better off this way. I will bury the past…just as I will bury you. Goodbye, Mother."

She walked through the apparition, ignoring her expression of grief as she grabbed an empty glass cup.

"Just as the angelic ones fell, so, too, will the soul of a demon," the memory of her mother expressed.

"Aaaaurgh!" Then, venting her rage, The Demoness threw the glass at the bathroom mirror, shattering it into countless pieces that fell to the floor, her face locked in a mixture of rage, frustration…and hurt.

Thunk! She wedged her sword into the floor, kneeling in front of it as she did the one thing she hadn't done in countless lifetimes: She cried.

"You…you made me do this," she whimpered, angry at her mother, angry at her loss. "You made me do this. You made me do all of this."

It was because of her past that she felt the one thing with Shinji Ikari that she never felt with any other immortal she had met in the past. She felt a type of kinship with him, that they were the same in several respects, despite their differences; she had been remade into an immortal by the woman that shed her blood to bear her into this realm of flesh…and he had been remade into an immortal by a woman related to the very one that shed blood to bear him into this same realm of flesh, both had been turned by their mothers…and abandoned by them, with absolutely no regard to their own desires, only their wants and needs. It was through this, The Demoness felt that she and Shinji…were like the only two that could ever truly understand one another through this inexplicable connection that they shared as a consequence of the Game.

-x-

On the other side of the city, in safety of his room, clutching his tanto ever so tightly, Shinji, unknown to himself, shed tears in his sleep. It was as though someone somewhere was in great pain…and he himself felt their pain without realizing it.

 _Who is the one crying tears that cannot be seen?_ He wondered in his sleep, still recovering from the double Quickening he had received from Quentin and Jose. _Why are they crying tears that cannot be seen? And who made them cry to begin with?_

To be continued…

A/N: A glimpse into the past of The Demoness at last. Her past, which brings her to the present and sheds insight into the unknown yet to come.


	16. Unnecessary

Creation began on 12-28-17

Creation ended on 01-16-18

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Immortal Ikari: Unnecessary

"…Aaah," yawned Shinji as he awoke to the new day, fully restored to his energetic self. "It feels like a regular morning."

He looked over to his iPhone and checked the clock, discovering that it was already twelve-twenty-two.

"Or noon," he sighed, and got out of bed.

Walking into the kitchen, he was greeted by Akira and Takuya, who were trying to enjoy some calming tea when he came in.

"Good afternoon, you two," he greeted.

"Good afternoon, Shinji," Takuya responded. "You were out cold for three days."

"Really? It felt longer than that."

"You didn't miss much, though," Akira told him. "It's starting to sink in now that every part of the world that had access to WMDs no longer has them because they're drifting out into space."

"And…The Demoness?"

"She's kept her distance. It looks like she really wants you to deal with the remaining Angels as soon as possible, though."

"I'd wanna deal with them as soon as possible, too. Say, did anyone have any unusual dreams while I was asleep?"

"Define 'unusual'," said Takuya.

"Surreal. Like you're in a place far into the future, but it's not the future. A huge city of some sort, bigger than any known to current history."

"Yeah, I did have a dream like that," explained Akira. "Last night and the night before."

"Me, too," Takuya added, "but it didn't feel like a dream, though. There were details that seemed…like they didn't belong to anyone's imagination."

Grumble. Shinji's stomach growled, reminding the three that he hadn't eaten and needed to.

-x-

Most of the NERV personnel thought they were going off the deep end as a result of the earlier event that deprived the world of its nukes, but found that hard to comprehend after it was discovered they were having the same dream two nights straight. In fact, the majority of Tokyo-3 and the neighboring regions had been having the same dream for two nights straight. Not even Gendo was exempt from this subconscious phenomenon as he sat in his office, trying to forget about the meeting he had with SEELE.

" _How do you explain this unusual turn of events, Ikari?"_ SEELE 10 had demanded during the meeting; none of the council were happy to have known that an Angel had been defeated by a woman who they felt was an irrelevant factor in their scenario.

" _Nobody at NERV was ever aware of what this woman could do,"_ he had informed them. _"We had no concrete information on her."_

" _And what information do you have on her now?"_ SEELE 01 questioned.

" _We have nothing concrete."_

" _What do you mean, nothing concrete? How hard can it be for NERV to obtain information on one woman in over five-billion?"_

" _There is literally nothing on her. NERV has found nothing on anything relating to her. Nothing on fingerprints, DNA, dental records, medical records, birth records. No criminal background, financial history. There's some indication that any records she does possess are all forgeries to give her a semblance of an identity, but only to hide who she really is. The only real information we have is a name that may just be an alias."_

" _Which is?"_ SEELE 04 asked.

" _The Demoness."_

" _That's it? Demoness?"_ SEELE07 questioned him.

" _The Demoness. It's been stressed out the way she's addressed. 'The' before 'Demoness'."_

The rest of the meeting was very basic when they instructed him deal with the remaining Angels. But that was easier said than done when the only one they had that had any real chance of defeating them without any additional weaponry or backup was a little boy they didn't know had achieved a state of immortality as a result of being killed once before. And the worst part was that his son was one of two people left in this ancient struggle between light and dark for a prize that would only go to the one left standing with their head still attached to their shoulders.

"I take it the meeting didn't go well?" Fuyutsuki had asked him.

"Knowing absolutely nothing about a woman that was able to defeat an Angel and may have been responsible for the loss of nuclear missiles everywhere, no meeting goes well for the old men," he answered him.

"Would it have been easier to tell them that The Demoness is an immortal?"

"Actually, no. Then they'd probably have us try to deal with her when we probably wouldn't be able to. We don't know anything about this woman, aside from the fact that she's referred to as the deadliest of the immortals, so we don't know what she's capable of."

"Which, in turn, makes her more dangerous than the Angels. Yet, her sole interest in NERV would only be the boy. Everything and everyone else means nothing to her."

"Has the security detail for the Third Child been increased?"

"Yes, but the twenty-four/seven increase may be insufficient. There's been no signs of unusual activity or unwanted visitors from their apartment. His friends come by every day, but Mrs. Rokubungi's associates haven't been seen since their last visit."

Then, out of curiosity, Gendo desired to know what was up with his father, whom they haven't heard from since NERV put the former immortal of forty years up in a small unit in return for his information on the Game.

"Nobody's really heard from him in four days," Fuyutsuki told him.

-x-

Slash! Slash! Slash! Shinji swung his sword as he trained atop the roof.

He would periodically stop to look over the edge and at the building rooftop across the street to see if the suits assigned to keep watch over him were looking his direction. While they were looking up and using some listening equipment, the boy sighed and sheathed his sword. Gesturing to the five suits that he was going to come over to their roof, he took a few steps back…and leapt over, surprising them with his recklessness.

None of them thought he'd make the jump he made, landing gracefully on the gravel in front of them, without any signs of injury to himself.

"Are you freaking stupid?!" One of them asked as he approached him. "You just jumped across the street! You could've fallen! You could've hit the pavement!"

"Are you done?" Shinji asked him, already irritated. "I don't have the luxury to be concerned about what would've happened if I were mortal, and this is the three-second shortcut to your rooftop."

"This is insane. Nobody just…does what you did…and survive."

"I only have this question to ask. I get that it's your job requirement to monitor my non-NERV-related activities, but what exactly do you do should I be in a situation where my safety is compromised?"

"We're allowed by NERV regulations to use lethal force to make sure all Evangelion pilots are protected," one of the other suits revealed.

"Okay, and should your methods prove useless against someone that can't be stopped by mere bullets?"

"Does this line of questioning relate in any way to this woman we were informed you saw with Commander Ikari during a dinner meeting?" Another suit asks him.

"She's called The Demoness…and the answer's yes and no."

"We just got our new orders the previous day regarding this woman."

"I would have to ask you not to bother with her, and I say this only for your own protection from her."

"Oh, we're not afraid of some woman."

"I'd be afraid of her, then. It's a personal thing between her and I. I'm just saying that invisible security from a woman that's going to come after you in her own way only after other matters are dealt with, particularly the matters I'm dealing with involving NERV, is completely unnecessary. It's unnecessary because it's a matter that must be dealt with, one way or another."

"You make it sound as though you intend to face her at a later time with that sword in your hands," the lead suit spoke up.

"That's because, when all else is resolved, when other affairs are put in order, I have to deal with her," he explained to them. "It's a terrible privilege for anyone in my position, but that's the way it has to be. Light and shadow. Hope and despair. Past and present."

Whoosh! Shinji felt the presence of another immortal, and turned away from the suits to survey the streets below, but he didn't see who he knew was the only other immortal left in the Game.

"Don't bother with looking, Immortal Ikari," he heard the lead suit say, but sounding different from before. "I'm borrowing this man to speak with you."

Shinji turned to face the men again and felt the intimidating presence of The Demoness emanating from the lead suit.

"I see you're embracing the power you received from the Angel," he stated.

"You have no idea how much fun this is," his voice, now matching the vocal patterns of the very woman controlling him. "It's like I've become virtually ubiquitous in a way. Allow me to show you."

"Uhh," one of the suits in the background went, dropping a piece of surveillance equipment as his head tilted up, then back down to look at Shinji, his face feeling under the influence of something much more potent than any drug. "It's really amazing."

"Ahh," he heard the other suits gasp as they, too, fell under The Demoness' influence, dropping whatever they were holding and standing in attention.

"The experience is one of remarkable exhilaration," one said to him.

"Being able to possess so many from within at an instant," another went.

"You see, Immortal Ikari, I can appear anywhere now…and have anyone under my mental grip. To be anywhere and anyone." The lead suit had revealed.

"A power almost equal to that of the deities themselves," Shinji expressed. "So, tell me… Are you here to gloat about your recent success…or are you here to warn me that I'm out of my league if I try to face you? Either way, I know I'm not as strong as you, but I won't back down."

"Gloat? Warn you? No, you're wrong, young man," a suit uttered on the far right side. "I can't really gloat about anything I've done recently."

"Nothing has been a success," the suit next to him in the middle right added. "A series of achievements, perhaps…but not a success until the Game has been won."

"You stripped the world of its nuclear missiles. As much as I don't care about that, since that's a power that's a poison upon the world…why?" Shinji asked her.

"My motives are as incomprehensible to you as they are to others that are alive. But I guess one reason for the act is that nobody can be trusted with such a power…and such a power shouldn't be in their possession unless they can ensure the people they will never use to settle petty arguments or vendettas."

"They were only meant as nuclear deterrents."

"And what is the Eva if not a nuclear deterrent?"

That reminded Shinji of what he had yet to do about the Eva after he dealt with the Angels. He knew it was never meant to help anyone beyond fighting the Angels, that it was meant to bring about the end of humankind, to help a handful of people destroy the world and remake it however they saw fit. As damaged or corrupted the world he lived in was, he didn't want to take the easy way…or take the path that led it down a fate worse than what he feared he had experienced in another life.

"For some strange reason, though, this power I have keeps me from knowing what you're thinking," the suits all said to him. "I've actually tried, even during this conversation, but I can't read your mind. You're protected from this power."

Shinji found this odd. If the Angel of Birds' power was to peer into the minds of others, then The Demoness possessed the power to a greater degree and was able to do things that were much greater than what the Angel had attempted.

"But it's okay, really," he heard The Demoness say to him, making the suits sit down. "I know enough about you from my earlier interactions. I do have one question, though. All I desire is your honesty. You hate her very much, don't you?"

This question caught Shinji off guard; not only was it direct, it was unexpected.

"Hate who?" He asked her.

"You know who I mean," she responded. "Your honesty, boy."

She was asking about his mother, Yui Ikari.

"Yes," he answered her, "but I didn't always."

"When did it start for you?"

"I guess…it was shortly after my first Quickening. The first time I ever had total recall over things I had forgotten. I hated what she had done…and what she wanted to do. Why does it matter to you whether I hate her or not?"

"Ascertaining for myself on just how alike we are. I grow tired of these mortals now, so I'll end this chat with a little bit of my own history. I hated my mother, too. I didn't always hate her, but during my transition from being her daughter to being a wandering loner, there's nothing I feel for her besides the agonizing hatred she left me with for many a lifetime. Until we meet again, Immortal Ikari."

Then the suits all fell in front of him, groaning as they came to.

"What happened?" The lead suit questioned.

"You guys were used by the very woman I told all of you were unnecessary against protecting me from in order to chat with me," he told them. "Maybe it goes against your orders, but call it a day. Take a week off from trying to keep tabs on me."

He then ran to the ledge of the roof and leapt off it, returning to the other rooftop he had been on.

"This kid is some other kind of weird," one of them expressed.

"Very," the lead suit accepted.

-x-

Returning to consciousness in her hotel suite, The Demoness revived and got up, confirming something new with her power. Despite the ability to influence people to do whatever she wanted them to do, to read their minds and know their history and secrets, she, for some reason that might've related to the Game, couldn't peer into the minds of the child immortal or the former immortals that gave up their Quickenings to him. Maybe it had something to do with the Game still being in play, but nothing she would fuss over. Great things would always come to those that waited, and The Demoness had the greatest degree of patience; an eternity of living in the shadows for over ten-thousand years had left her deprived of the desire to end things quickly, no matter how much she wanted them to.

"All in good time," she told herself.

In the meantime, she had explored various minds and saw various secrets that were hers to know. She had seen into the darkest depths of those that had the secrets to permanently eliminating diseases that were believed by the current world to be incurable, secrets to achieving longer lifespans, people that got away with murder either through covering their tracks or due to being protected by the police that were tasked with apprehending them, even the foolish beliefs of these various men and women that spent years trying to tear down medical clinics that believed in a woman's right to end new life if it was undesired by them. There was no mental corner left unchecked, no mental stone left unturned. Not even the secrets of NERV and this other organization, SEELE, were hidden away from her, and she found their agendas to be quite the disturbing factor that, if left unchecked, would hinder her own agenda.

 _Human Instrumentality, forced evolution through artificial means, Third Impact. The end of the world as people know it. What those that have access to the Dead Sea Scrolls don't realize, however, is that those scrolls are just trash in their entirety. They're rubbish meant to give worthless inspiration. Even if they did manage to pull it all off, nothing would last forever in such a depraved state of existence. Maybe for one-hundred years or so, but in the end, it'll come undone_ _…_ _and those that experienced it can never do so again._

The only reason she knew of this was because she herself had read about it in her early childhood, probably around the time she was six or seven; the people of her time and culture had experimented with the amalgamation of souls and minds and barely had much success in that field of spiritual commingling, resulting in it being a failure because the unity wasn't meant to last long and had no means of being repeated upon the same people after a long time had past. And to think that NERV and SEELE were trying to do such an act again, not knowing that it had been done before already, it just made The Demoness pity their lowly, sickening desires to escape the flesh.

 _Fortunately, I'll see to it that they both fall before I can accomplish my own goal,_ she thought, having set into motion other obstacles that would threaten the paramilitary agency and the organization that manipulated the United Nations.

-x-

"…Wait a minute, what do you mean, they're not going to be transferred over here?" Gendo demanded in his office over the phone to the NERV branch in Germany, being informed that the Second Child and Unit-02 weren't going to be transferred over to Japan. "There are still Angels attacking and we only have two Evas, one of which is still undergoing repairs."

But try as he might to try and be convincing, the German NERV branch, after the fear invoked by watching the world's nuclear arsenal get shot up into the sky, chose not to risk what may now be their country's only defense against a potential terrorist attack. This meant that whatever situation NERV's Japan branch was facing with the Angels, they were going to have to contend with on their own or from another branch that had an Evangelion they could part with. Which, of course, was none of the other branches around the world, as there were only three Evangelions in existence…and no country willing to support the construction and maintenance of any additional units because they were so costly and with this turn of events. Hanging up the phone in defeat, Gendo sighed.

"I take it the Committee knows about this?" Fuyutsuki, who was present, asked him.

"We can take it up with the old men, but those fools at the German branch refuse to budge," he explained to him. "Nobody wants to risk being in the middle of a terrorist attack which seems unlikely, given that this was the act of a single woman that somehow manipulated the ones in charge of the nukes to dispose of them. Are we any closer to finding this woman?"

"We're trying to search through the use of assumed identities and anyone that has visited Japan within the last six months. So far, nothing. Although, we could try just asking your relatives that have seen her before. They may know something."

Except Gendo was not willing to risk putting the Third Child into unnecessary harm's way before the Angels were dealt with over a woman that was a threat to him if she took his head off.

"The Third Child may need to be relocated soon for his own protection," he expressed instead.

-x-

"I had no idea you were a _The Legend of Korra_ fan," said Kensuke to Shinji as they, Toji and Hikari were watching an episode from the series' first season at the the jock's apartment.

"I loved the _Avatar_ series, and _The_ _Legend of Korra_ targets older viewers," the immortal child stated. "I am older…and I do enjoy the fight scenes as much as I enjoy the character development."

"Have you ever been to one of those conventions where people dress up like their favorite characters?" Toji asked him.

Shinji was then silent, looking at the television, or rather, staring into the beyond in front of the television. He was thinking back to a time where he did attend a convention of the make-believe sort…but it had been under false pretenses because he couldn't be taken serious due to his stunted growth and child-like looks. It had been the only time he went based on a half-truth…but ended up in some real danger he hadn't expected to be in.

"Shinji?" Hikari asked, shaking his right shoulder.

"Sorry," he apologized, "and to answer your question, Toji, yes, I have been to one. It was just that at the same time, another immortal had been there looking for me."

"I'm sorry, man, I didn't mean to bring up a bad memory."

"No, it wasn't really bad. The immortal wouldn't risk his public identity for the sake of a Quickening. In some ways, the convention was like a false holy ground. People were just there to have a good time and buy things to collect. There wasn't a single person there who wasn't involved in a secret feud between light and darkness out to get anyone else. We went as characters from the _Teen Titans_ animated series. Akira went as Raven and Takuya went as Aqualad while I went as Beast Boy." He told them. "The enemy immortal actually came dressed as Pegasus from the _Yu-Gi-Oh!_ franchise."

"Dang," Kensuke expressed. "I would've expected you to go to one of those as Aang."

"I wasn't going to shave my head for a painted arrow. I wasn't even going to smear red paint on my face and go as Zuko."

"I guess Sokka would've been the next best choice, then," suggested Hikari.

"Yeah," he agreed with her. "You? If you were interested."

Hikari thought about it and decided that she would have gone to those as either Katara or Ty Lee if she had no other alternative.

"Hey, Shinji," Kensuke uttered, "any chance of knowing how you're going to deal with The Demoness when you face her?"

Shinji became quiet again before answering, "I don't have a strategy yet for how to deal with her. Fortunately, I don't have to deal with her for the time being so long as the Angels keep attacking. And I might have to do something about what else is a danger to people if exploited."

"What else is dangerous to the world if exploited?" Toji questioned.

"Lilith, that giant I told you about that is confined in a massive chamber under NERV HQ. From these memories of my life in another existence, she is dangerous if set loose upon the world."

"That bad?" Hikari asked him.

"Very."

"So, then…if you dispose of it before it can be used…then you prevent the world from suffering because of it."

"That's the plan."

-x-

Hot water was such a blessing for mortals because, despite sometimes being too much for sensitive skin, it felt so good when it doused the flesh or completely immersed the body of the person that used it. That was how The Demoness felt right now as she showered in her hotel suite's bathroom, letting the scalding water cascade all over her face and back. Her left rose up past her abdomen, over her breasts…and to her ornate choker that repelled the water that flowed around its holes to reach her neck skin.

" _A very special choker for a very special lady,"_ she recalled a voice from her ultra-ancient past as the memory of the day she received her choker. _"_ _Even when we're gone, it'll last to remind the world that you were the one who wore it, that it was made especially for you."_

"And for over ten-thousand years, it has lasted, repelling rust, heat and water," she uttered, grabbing a bottle of shampoo for her hair. "Over ten-and-a-half millennia, nearly nineteen. Sometimes, I wonder if I could trade it to have you back."

Washing the dead skin and hair cells off her head, The Demoness found herself reflecting upon memories of another face from her past. And unlike her mother, this was that of a man she had been close to and was more than a mere friend…back when she had friends, a home and a family. He had been around her age, five months her junior, with purple eyes and golden-blond hair…and stood eight centimeters under her height at the time. He was…the one for her.

The next thing The Demoness knew, she was on the floor of the bathtub, her face being sprayed on by the shower head.

 _That creature, that Angel,_ she thought; she deduced that the Quickening from Arael was displaying some residual side-effects that would linger for a while until her body fully adjusted to the power boost. _It's bringing up my memories and making me relive the moments of either passion or contempt._

She turned off the water and got out of the bathroom. The power of telepathy, mind control, mind blocking or whatever these modern people chose to call it when you could influence the consciousness of anyone you chose made her aware of two hotel security guards walking towards her suite to ask her about the additions of her extension.

 _I don't have time for being booted out if this is about that,_ she thought, and explored their minds to ascertain their reasons for coming. _So…they just want to know if I need the minibar restocked. I could have them restock it…but I don't want their services right now._

She focused on their minds and left a mental note in their feeble brains telling them that the minibar could be restocked in two hours when she was not in the room…and felt them turn around and walk away from her door.

"I suppose I can pull my best out of the closet," she sighed, going over to her bag and opening it to pull out a small box the size of a baseball.

-x-

"…I can't believe you have us doing this," said Kensuke to Shinji as they, Hikari and Toji were in the park, performing Tai Chi.

"How was I supposed to know that I would lose a coin toss?" Toji asked them.

"I don't know," went Hikari, actually feeling at ease with the Tai Chi movements. "You hear about this most of the time, and it gets interesting if you think about it. It feels good."

"And Tai Chi became the foundation for Waterbending," Shinji told them. "We flow like the flowing element, we turn our means of defense into our means of offense, turning an opponent's strength against them. In some ways, it is like a slow dance being performed."

Whoosh. He stopped and looked over towards a park path, seeing Rei Ayanami nearby.

"She's really starting to make my skin crawl," he sighed as his friends turned and saw the albino girl.

"Maybe she's trying to get to know you now," Hikari suggested.

"She doesn't make me feel that way. I'm unpleasant to her because of my immortal status…and she's one of the people I never feel safe around without my tanto."

"What else is there about her that nobody knows?" Toji asks him.

"Only what I've refrained from telling you three…but implore you to view her as you always have before we met."

"Shinji, do… Do you pity Rei?" Kensuke questions.

Shinji sighed as he thought about his actions, reactions and alternate universal memories of the First Child that led to his own unwillingness to associate with the girl beyond her presence at school and NERV HQ. Whoever he was in these other lives he lacked, the recollection of alternate memories that lingered showed him that he had been oddly attracted to her, found her somewhat beautiful, but when he found out about who she was and her association with his parents and why his father held her in greater value than he ever could in his own son, he had been shattered by the truth. More than shattered, in fact, the boy had been left in ruins beyond any hopes of salvation because he couldn't reconcile what his parents had done. With this discovery and having the aid of Akira and Takuya to get him by and process these memories and verify their solidity, Shinji chose not to echo his other selves in their fates, and part of the only way to avoid this was to refrain from having anything close to personal to do with Rei Ayanami in order to protect himself. Although he knew it was not her fault, he couldn't reconcile with the fact that she was anything but like regular people, something his parents served as the direct cause of.

"It's not so much pity as it's resentment," he explained to them. "Too many lies, too many secrets, and a lot of anger."

"Oh, shit," they heard Toji say.

"What?" Hikari asked, choosing to ignore his bad language.

"The Demoness," he revealed, pointing down towards the sidewalk of the park. "Over there."

They turned to see, and the immortal woman was on the sidewalk, watching them. Or rather, she was watching Shinji. But the way she was dressed was unlike the last few times they saw her.

It looked as though she were wearing a dress that belonged to some sort of primitive culture, but it looked as though it was made from good quality fabrics and had a flowing feel to it. The dress was gray and black, possibly equipped with a small shawl over her shoulders, her wrists adorned in silver wristbands or gauntlets, and her hair was in a combination of being worn down with two locks tied into braids beside her head that led to the back of her shoulders. She looked, despite her aura of intimidation, like a goddess above all others with such an unearthly beauty.

"Although she said she wouldn't come after me until after the remaining Angels were dealt with, she certainly likes to pop up wherever," Shinji expressed, and the woman turned to face Rei, who seemed put off by her presence. "Huh?"

It was just then that he realized something. The way The Demoness was dressed was exactly like the way the people he saw in one of his dreams were dressed, in flowing robes that felt like they were part of a religion, but without the deity worshipping.

"She looks like the people dressed in a dream I had last night were," Toji confessed.

"Yeah," added Hikari, "but she's so beautiful. Hard to find any reason as to why she became the way she did."

"Only when you don't know…or when people choose not to divulge their own history to anyone," Shinji stated.

The Demoness then turned to look at Rei, who seemed unusually bothered by the woman's presence. And then she frowned slightly, causing the albino girl to back away.

 _I know who you are, Rei Ayanami,_ they heard the immortal woman's voice in their heads; she was broadcasting her thoughts. _I know what you are…and you disgust me._

Hearing this was a shocker to know.

 _Do you even know what you are? Do you have any independence of your own? Your so-called Commander Ikari… What a load of mass discord right there. I could tell the whole world the truth about you right now, and you'd be reduced to nothing more than an abomination in their eyes. You understand me, don't you?_

 _I do,_ they heard Rei's thoughts as the girl responded. _Who are you?_

 _I am The Demoness. Diana Akuma in this social life that conceals my identity. Though, it doesn't matter much, anymore. I don't say my name to anyone, as the whole point of anonymity to preserve one's life._

 _You are…similar to the Third Child. You are unpleasant._

 _Unpleasant? It's only because we're immortal, because we were dealt bad hands by the people that should have mattered…but don't, anymore. You're unpleasant to be around yourself, you know, but your unpleasantness isn't truly your fault. The Immortal Ikari finds you off-putting because of many factors, one of which is the fact that you are the cruel and unforgiving, warped reflection of his deceiving mother, molded in her image by his disgraceful father._

Kensuke, Toji and Hikari looked down at Shinji; all they really knew with his strained relations with his parents was that he had resented them for their choices and beliefs…and his lack of a relationship with Rei was simply that she tried to approach him and she views him as being unpleasant. None of them ever came to the realization that Rei Ayanami bore an unusual resemblance to Yui Ikari, even though they had seen the latter woman. But Shinji, he refrained from discussing this because he tried not to see her as a hideous monster or a disgusting thing, both of which were sculpted to resemble people in the harshest of ways by his parents to hurt others.

 _What?_ They heard Rei respond.

 _Oh…you had no idea that you were a mere forgery of another woman that was the obsession of a disgraceful man you would follow to Hell? A pity._ The Demoness expressed as she slowly approached the girl. _You can deny it to the best of your tolerance, but I speak the truth, regardless of my way of expressing it. You're no better than a copy, nothing more than a shadow of a shadow of someone else with intentions no better than the man you listen to, which, in turn, makes you no better than a mere tool, nothing more than a means to an end. I see where your path ends…and it is one of misery and nothingness you can't escape from without asking for aid that won't be provided._

 _You lie._

 _Wrong. I've seen both their minds and their intentions, neither of which had your interests, or complete lack of interests, at heart at all. And it's most unusual now that as much as I see your fate, your false face is one that may refuse to follow you to your nonexistent grave. My advice to you, which is a first for me, is that you run away while you're still able to. Otherwise, your inconvenience will continue to cause further problems._

 _My inconvenience?_

 _Let me say it to you in a way that is simple enough for you to comprehend. Unlike other people that have parents or guardians that may or may not give a damn about their lives, you're hardly a person. You're a construct, an anomaly, a thing made to look like a person, but grown in a mad scientist's laboratory. You don't have a life of your own, just a series of instructions to follow because your very existence is based on being a means to an end for the people that made you. You are nothing but what they made you to be. She made you to ensure a so-called bright future for all of mankind. He made you to get his woman back. That bright future will not come to pass. He has his woman back in his life. Therefore, you, Rei Ayanami, are an unnecessary part of what was originally intended. You…are of no use, anymore. You…have no reason to continue going on._

Then the immortal woman walked away past Rei, leaving her to question whether or not what she was informed of was true.

"Yikes," went Toji, seeing the woman disappear behind a tree. "That was…pretty low."

"Shinji?" Hikari asked. "She was…just playing a game with Rei…right?"

He didn't answer her. He couldn't look away from Rei, who slowly walked away; her movements a clear indication that this unexpected revelation had, more or less, rattled her. Even if he wanted nothing to do with her, he didn't have it in him to be that cruel to someone that was just as much a pawn or tool in someone else's demented game as she was or had been if he could defy fate. And now, as a precautionary result of this event, he took out his phone and called a number he hated the fact that he was calling.

"You'd better pick up," he uttered, hearing the phone ring.

"Ikari," the voice of his father responded after a while.

"It's Shinji. I need you to listen to what I have to ask and say to you about Rei Ayanami."

"What about her?"

"Look, I honestly don't care about what she means or meant to you in the past or what your relationship is with her, but she just got a mouthful from The Demoness about her past, present and future before walking away at the park just a minute ago. Is she under surveillance like with any Evangelion pilot?"

"That is the standard procedure for all pilots. What did she say to her?"

"Very little…but each word had volumes of impact with her brutal honesty towards her. Whatever I think about Ayanami is irrelevant right now, but I don't want her doing something regretful later on just because someone says she's an inconvenience while another believes she's replaceable in a scientific and depraved way."

"I'll have Section Two bring her in."

"There's one other thing. It might not mean anything, but try looking for The Demoness under the name Diana Akuma. That's all I needed to say to you."

"Diana Akuma. Understood. Your update is appreciated."

"Don't mention it," he told his father, but he was being serious about that; he didn't want his father's acknowledgment, now or ever.

"Shinji," he heard him say before he could hang up. "Thank you for calling."

That was the first time his old man had ever said anything positive towards him that involved him in some sense. But as much as he could've felt touched by the measure of acknowledgment from him, he didn't want to fool himself into believing they and his mother could go from being estranged to being a family again. And there were matters more important than any relationship between the three of them that simply wasn't going to happen.

"We gotta go," he told his friends.

-x-

She felt such elation to be back in her old dress again after so long. She felt so much freedom, able to move faster, like the wind and be untouched by the pain of her bad memories. There wasn't a moment where the feeling of dread imposed itself upon her.

 _No past or future right now,_ she thought as she walked down the street, unknowingly turning several heads with her appeal, both in physical looks and in attire. _Only this glorious moment._

Unfortunately, her appeal had attracted three souls that were anything but attracted to her…and they followed her until they turned a corner…and tackled her into an alleyway.

"Got you!" A man announced, pinning her to the ground.

"Oh, we got ourselves quite a catch, men!" A second man expressed, and The Demoness saw them looking down at her.

"Scream…and we slit your pretty neck," warned the third man to her as he and the second man held her arms pinned while the first man started to unzip his pants.

"Cry if this hurts, beautiful," he taunted.

"Punch yourself in the face," she told him…and then he did just that, knocking himself backwards off her, surprising both himself and his buddies.

"Huh?!" He gasps as he struggles to get up.

"Release me and take off your pants," she told the two men holding her down; she was using the power of Arael on them and forcing them to bend to her will.

They unwillingly obeyed her and let go of her arms. Then, they got up and began to undo their pants.

"What the Hell?!" The first man yelled. "What are you doing?!"

"Oh, I think the actual question is what were you three thinking, going after a woman with the means to defend herself from your unwanted advances…and is willing to make you pay for your idiocy by making you all hurt yourselves."

All three had their pants off and were now, despite not wanting to, reaching into their underwear.

"How are you doing this?" The third man questions her.

"I believe one of your modern sayings is that a girl has her ways," she stated as she got up and dusted the dirt off her clothes. "Now, I will make you engage in manual agony. Start jerking, men."

-x-

"…We found one link to the name the Third Child gave us," said Ritsuko to Gendo in his office. "Diana Akuma, age thirty-two, worked for a museum in the US up until eight years ago when the building was burnt down. The cause was initially believed to be due to faulty wiring or damaged gas pipelines, but later ruled as arson by a street gang known as the Vegas Raiders. My guess is that all the good names were taken. She survived the fire, but later became a recluse…and the the street gang responsible for the destruction of the museum were found hacked to pieces and burnt beyond recognition. Here's her picture."

The faux-blond woman gave him a picture of the mystery woman, and Gendo identified her as being none other than The Demoness, exactly as she was the night he saw her at the restaurant.

"Where is she now?" He demanded.

"At present, visiting Japan on vacation. But if she's after the boy, then she's most likely here in Tokyo-3, just keeping her distance for the time being. Here is the current hotel she has checked into."

Gendo checked the location of the hotel and it was rooted in the center of the city that was unrelated to the defense grid built to repel the Angels (not that it made much difference since the way the Third Child resolved the battles quickly and with only minimal damage to the city). Even if he decided to send the police after her, it would just be false accusation that she was some sort of…headhunter or serial killer or even a predatory woman out to get a little boy without any conclusive evidence to back up any of it. Plus, she possessed the power of an Angel, so she was capable of anything, even making people believe her to be incapable of any foul play.

"Your orders on how to handle her?" Ritsuko asked him.

"For now, just monitor her hotel and possible phone calls," he stated. "If she's seen going anywhere in the direction of the Rokubungis' apartment building or the school, I want to be informed."

-x-

He didn't like Rei, that much he made clear to his friends because of his current life's situation, but even Shinji's dislike of her wouldn't have driven him to lay the albino girl down the way The Demoness did when she revealed things he refrained from disclosing because he had some respect for the girl. If he could change the future of this world, then he could change her fate; he was certain that her fate was already deviating from what was originally intended after his second Angel-derived Quickening restored his mother to the flesh. All he had to do was dispose of Lilith, and the person the world hardly knew as Rei Ayanami would be reduced to being just that; she'd be a person and no longer an expendable pawn for some twisted scheme. As he walked down the hall to his apartment, he tried not to think about what he had once witnessed in a different life that Kensuke suggested (after looking into the theory of multiple universes existing) be called the primordial life because it might've been the memories of his very first life (which might've explained why he felt so much disgust and a feeling of pure dread over the state of things, minor and major). In those different memories, he saw Rei as a giant of light, except she wasn't Rei, anymore, but Lilith, made whole and undoing the world that exist.

 _No way in Hell will I let anything of that sort happen in this life,_ he swore, reaching the door. _If I do nothing and let that happen, I'll just be trading my personal demons for more demons than I could manage and face._

"You're back early, Shinji," Akira uttered, stepping into the hallway, dressed in black shorts and a blue, skin-tight halter with a loose, pink shirt over it, a mild layer of sweat on her face.

"I had to cut the Tai Chi lesson short because of The Demoness," he explained.

"What happened?"

"She showed up at the park where we were, and Ms. Ayanami was also there…and the girl was mentally laid low by the woman with her choice of explaining her past and the revelations of the deviated state of current events."

"The Demoness…berated the girl?"

"That's right. Then, deciding to make sure she didn't do something regretful, I called that man and told him to keep an eye on her in case she did try something."

"What's this talk about Ms. Ayanami?" They heard Takuya in the living room as he stepped into the hallway to meet them.

"The Demoness berated her," they both answered him.

"Ouch."

"Yeah," Shinji agreed with him. "There's something else, too. The Demoness was dressed exactly like the people in those odd dreams were. Flowing robes and dresses, like some sort of religion or a cult or something of the sort."

"Any chance she's messing with us all?" Akira asked him.

"How does she benefit from wearing a dress that looks like it cost a fortune and more and walking around the streets in it? It just makes her more appealing…and more unusual."

-x-

Unnecessary. This was something Rei Ayanami felt that she heard somewhere before, but it was the way The Demoness had said it to her that made her feel…cast aside. If all she existed for was to help Commander Ikari reclaim his wife, then why was she still around? If he had her back in his life after the defeat of the Fourth Angel, then he had no further use for her aside from piloting the Eva and facing the Angels, which she had been unable to do with Unit-00 still being repaired and the Third Child having defeated the majority of the Angels on his own.

As she stood in front of the window of her apartment looking out at the night sky, she pondered what to do about her situation. Or rather, her lack of a situation. That woman that called herself The Demoness had even threatened to expose her status and existence to the world out of pure disgust, and neither of them knew each other. Not that Rei ever made any effort to befriend anyone; people kept their distance from her since before she could recall.

 _You had no idea you were a mere forgery?_ She recalled The Demoness' words in her mind. _You are nothing but what they made you. Run while you're still able to._

For the first time in her position as an Evangelion pilot, Rei didn't know what to do, who to talk to and expect the proper answers to her questions.

-x-

"Urgh!" The second guy groaned as he passed out in front of The Demoness.

"Please," begged the third guy, on his knees with his hands still where the immortal woman forced him to put them. "Please, I'm sorry. My friends and I are assholes. We'll walk away and pretend none of this ever happened. We'll never bother you again. Please, just let us go. We won't tell anyone about this. I swear!"

She approached him, forcing his hands to tighten harder where they were positioned, causing the man more pain, and she bent down to grab him by his hair, pulling his head back.

"You depraved and disgusting simpleton," she spoke, turning away to face his moaning companions, and then back to him, exciting fear just from the way she looked at him. "Your begging leaves me irritated that one like you and your friends would try and assault a maiden just for the thrill of it. You're another example of how far mankind has fallen from the favor of the gods over the ages…and it sickens me to no end with how much I have to live with your kind each day. Unfortunately, I have bigger fish to fry and greater ambitions to concern myself with the likes of you for now. But I believe in having insurance."

The man removed his hands from his shriveled organ and reached into his pants, pulling out a pocket knife and wallet, casting them aside for The Demoness to look at. He saw her pick up his wallet and remove his identification card, memorizing the information therein.

"I already know everything about you and your friends, but I shall take this card to remind you that I can come after you three if I choose to," she threatened him kindly, but then got serious. "I'll have you three masturbate yourselves into oblivion…if I ever see you again! Do you understand me?"

"Yes," he answered her.

"Good. Now cover up. You've already disrespected me with your packages out for the world to see."

The Demoness got up and walked away from the three, and the third man fell down in subtle relief to know that his life had been spared for the time being.

None of them knew how fortunate they were to be allowed to continue breathing after encountering the deadliest of the immortals that was dressed for much more than to impress. But now they knew that she was above them and could end their worthless lives in an instant if she chose to and nobody would care how or why.

"We gotta turn ourselves in," he told his friends. "We gotta get some medical help."

"I think she made me self-serve too much that my piece is dead," one of the two responded. "She castrated me using my own hands."

"She castrated all of us," the other one declared. "I can't feel anything down there."

-x-

The more Shinji focused on select memories in the quietness of his room, the more he pain he saw of what was definitely his original self. And the last bits of memory were the coldest he had ever experienced that took place after the world he knew ended. The primordial Shinji was alone on a beach with red ocean water, the young girl around his age with red hair beside him. And then, the boy straddled the girl and began trying to strangle her, just as he did once before in an hallucination, having been rejected by her and denied any form of actual help.

 _I'd probably done something of that sort, too, if I had nothing and no one left to live for,_ he thought, seeing the girl raise her bandaged arm to caress his face, withered with loss and damaged mentality. _Any words of kindness, any verbal indication that he really mattered to anyone, that he was loved and wouldn't be abandoned again or betrayed would've helped him start his road to recovery. A physical indication isn't enough for him._

" _How disgusting,"_ he heard the girl say…and in turn sealed her own doom and destroyed any sense of sense his original self had left.

Shinji threw his head back onto his pillow on his futon and sighed at how the primordial Shinji just ceased being a boy damaged by misbegotten bonds and relationships that would never mend…and witnessed how he snapped the redhead's neck before becoming fully consumed by a fatalistic drive to end what was left of what he felt needed to end. There was no desire to rethink anything, talk with someone (not that there was anyone left to talk to), not even reopening up to the world. This Shinji…was just consumed by a self-destructive need to stop completely…and the only way he could do that was by getting rid of the last person he knew was still alive that forced him into this nightmare: Yui Ikari, the mother that condemned him by abandoning him.

 _That's what started everything,_ he realized. _Everything_ _else is the direct result of one universe that got fractured into many, each one different and unique to the rest…but still connected to the original version, which has become as unnecessary as any other need to end the world._

He sighed as the total sum of his original story came to a close. Now that he understood it all, he felt he understood why he had to do what he felt he needed to do. The world he didn't live in, that was taken away forever, never had a chance, but the one he did live in, where he had the unwanted gift of immortality and the power of those that fell before him, had a chance to be saved and mended with whatever this Prize was in the Game. All that was needed for this hope to be realized was to win it and change the way this story had been written.

"If you don't like the plot of the story, then change it," he told himself. "If you don't want the responsibility that others try to force on your shoulders, then tell them before considering that you have to walk away."

Suddenly, he got a bad feeling in his heart. It was like something was going to happen soon…and that it was wrong, and he got up and looked out his window at the skyscrapers from a distance. The city seemed peaceful, yet he still felt uneasy.

 _Something is coming,_ he realized.

To be continued…

A/N: There are many things and people that are, as the title would suggest, unnecessary.


	17. Father Falls

Creation began on 01-16-18

Creation ended on 03-01-18

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Immortal Ikari: Father Falls

The alarms went off and Central Dogma became aware of the latest threat to the world. The newest Angel, showing up in the dead of night.

"Damn cretins," muttered Misato; the fact that the Angel appeared at night was irritating. "This one chooses now to show up?"

"Probably a strategic change," suggested Shigeru. "Less activity during the night than there is during the day."

"Okay, has anyone contacted the Third Child?"

"He's on his way," answered Hyuga, "but Commander Ikari wants the First Child to take point against this Angel."

"But Unit-00 was only recently reactivated. It doesn't even have any upgrades to its performance capabilities just yet."

"We don't have a choice," went Ritsuko. "Commander Ikari doesn't want to risk this Angel attacking before Unit-01 is sortied out to deal with it."

On the screens, the Angel resembled a large, floating torus made of light, positioned over the scorched hill site where the Fourth and Fifth Angels were disposed of.

"And we don't know what this Angel is capable of," Maya expressed, not liking the idea that Rei was being sent out as a scapegoat.

Inside the plug of the orange Eva, the First Child was having an internal conflict between doing what Commander Ikari ordered her to do…and what The Demoness had informed her earlier today at the park when she went there to keep an eye on the Third Child.

"Rei, we're still awaiting the arrival of the Third Child," Misato informed her through the intercom. "For now, you're to maintain your distance and try to see if the Angel has any weakness. Understood?"

"Yes, Captain Katsuragi," she answered her.

-x-

He rode faster than he usually did on his bike to get to NERV. There hadn't been any time to wait for Akira and Takuya to get ready and drive him there, and Shinji wasn't going to put up with any suits getting him to where he needed to get to. He knew what could happen to the city if this Angel, Armisael, was not dealt with properly, and he needed to get to NERV quickly before they did anything wrong to endanger the civilians' homes. Thankfully, the streets were empty, allowing Shinji greater accessibility and maneuverability on his bike as he sped up.

 _Sending out Unit-00 is the greatest mistake that NERV could do, no matter which life is lived by anyone,_ he thought, reaching an access port and swiping his card in the terminal before resuming his venture to the Geo-Front. _I gotta get rid of it and Lilith now._

-x-

Slash! The Demoness, practicing her swordsmanship on another rooftop, ignored the sight of the Angel she learned from the Quickening she got from Arael was called Armisael, the Angel of the Womb.

There was no need to run or fight. She had confidence that the Immortal Ikari would deal with it…but she knew that NERV's disgrace of a boss would send out his blight of nature. Unless the situation changed to benefit the boy rather than the paramilitary group and a depraved cult. So long as the Game was in play, any immortal involved would be kept protected from any methods that would seem similar to what she knew in her past that this Instrumentality Project sought to achieve, but The Demoness had decided that a world deprived of people was just not in the cards for her own agenda…and needed these pathetic mortals present and in their current condition for the future she intended.

 _Rei Ayanami…just another pawn in a cruel game made by those too foolish to know they reach for the impossible,_ she thought, searching through the minds of all those in the Geo-Front for the albino girl, finding her within an orange, armored cyclops that was no better than a decrepit mansion or carpet that couldn't be salvaged. _Many small apologies, but you'll have to take one for your misfit team._

-x-

Rei felt the minor connection she had with Unit-00 for a brief moment…but then she felt nothing. Something was wrong.

"This can't be right," went Maya, rechecking the synchronization between the First Child and Unit-00. "Doctor Akagi, Rei's synchronization is at zero percent."

"Is there a glitch?" Ritsuko asked her.

"No, ma'am. A minute ago, it was stable at forty-two percent, but then it dropped to zero. It's like she's not in the plug, anymore."

"Emotional instability?"

"No, ma'am, she's completely stable."

 _Don't bother with trying to fix the problem,_ all of Central Dogma heard that female voice in their heads. _I'm in control of the situation you find yourselves in with Ms. Ayanami. I can't risk the boy being cheated out of a benefit that should go to him._

"Did anyone else just hear that?" One of the men questioned.

"Yeah," answered one of the women.

 _If I were any of you, I'd put my faith in the boy you take for granted just because his parents are pathetic,_ they heard The Demoness say to them. _He has quite the tendency to do the least amount of harm and ensure that you have a place to go back to at the end of the day._

"She's talking about Shinji," said Fuyutsuki to Gendo and Yui.

"She wants him to face the Angel?" Yui suspected.

 _That's right,_ they heard her again. _Don't_ _deny that it's what you expected of him from the very start. Your choices breed only discord, yet your son's choices breed a form of benevolence because he refuses to cross the line you would without hesitation to the consequences._

"Uh, Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki," went Shigeru, "the Third Child has just entered the base. He's riding his bike through the halls on his way to the locker rooms."

On separate screens, Central Dogma witnessed the immortal child riding in the halls as he rode around several of the personnel present before coming to a stop in front of the locker room assigned to men.

"Why not just go straight to the cages?" Misato wondered, as there might've been no time to change into a plugsuit.

 _Would you really want your clothes reeking like an immersible fluid that looks like what you leave in the toilet after drinking and smells like what flows in your veins?_ She and everyone else heard The Demoness say to her. _It's revolting and humiliating. Not to mention the clothes he wore when he arrived here for the first time still stink because of it, despite being thoroughly washed, over and over again._

Shinji, now dressed in his blue plugsuit, got back on his bike and rode towards the cages.

"How soon until he reaches Unit-01?" Misato asked Shigeru.

"ETA is three minutes," he answered. "Man, is he leaving his tread marks on the floor."

-x-

If they wanted to reprimand him for an unlicensed or unauthorized use of his bike to cut the travel time down to get to work faster, Shinji would deal with it. So long as they didn't decide to confiscate his wheels because they served him well in his times of need.

 _Armisael or Lilith?_ He wondered on which Angel to deal with first. _If I'm going to get dealt with by NERV, eventually, I might as well deal with the lesser threat first before the greater one._

Stopping his bike just outside the door to the Eva cages, he locked it and rushed onto the umbilical bridge.

"Anyone touches my bike in any way that ruins it, I'm kicking their ass across the pavement later," he threatened the workers in front of the plug before jumping inside it.

-x-

There was no point in trying to run towards the shelters. The Angel's unexpected arrival in the night caused too many people to panic and run around on the streets. This made NERV sending out the Eva in the city impossible without causing harm to the civilians.

Fortunately, The Demoness, wanting this matter resolved in Shinji's favor, used her power to influence the people on the streets to run down certain streets to enable a small path to the Angel. And because she wanted to see what he'd do in defense of his loved ones, excluding his parents.

-x-

"…She just wants to see what I'll do," said Shinji in response to Central Dogma's discovery of the civilians clearing certain streets NERV used to send out the Evas. "It's only for her amusement, not for your benefit."

"Either way, you need to dispose of this Angel before it makes a move," responded Misato to him. "Take no chances."

 _You have no idea._

The Eva was moved to the catapult system and sent up to the city. While the standard procedure would have been to send him out with a rifle, Shinji's intentions were more direct than theirs; he would use the power of the Angels he had defeated to defeat this one. In many respects, his way was more cost-effective than wasting the taxpayers money on firearms that didn't work.

"Oh, this city has more life during the day than the night," he muttered, making the Eva step out onto the empty streets as he saw the Angel of the Womb. "Well, sarcasm aside, only one ring to rule them all."

"Less joking, more doing," he heard Ritsuko say to him, and then he turned off his intercom.

-x-

"…I didn't take him for a fan of _The Lord of the Rings_ ," went Hyuga, "or at least someone that knew of it."

"Maybe just the first film," added Maya, "assuming he even knows about the Peter Jackson trilogy of films."

On the screens, the purple Eva had walked over to the hillside and the Angel changed from a Taurus to a snake-like noodle. It then flew towards the Eva!

"Incoming!" Shigeru gasped.

It tried to penetrate the Eva's torso, but Unit-01 was suddenly defended by its hands glowing pinkish and unleashing a blade of energy that was similar to the whips of the Fourth Angel, repelling it.

-x-

 _Sorry about that, but I know what happens now when you touch someone,_ thought Shinji, watching as the Angel reverted back to its Taurus state.

The Eva charged and swung the energy blade in its left arm at the Angel.

THUNK! The blade bounced off and sent the Eva staggering backwards by three steps.

"Son of a bitch!" He cursed. _Okay, that was definitely like hitting a metal bar with another bar._

The glowing Taurus changed from white and smooth to green and scaly now, like a reptilian serpent representing the Ouroboros, only without a head and tail in sight.

 _Okay, that's very different from what I do know,_ Shinji realized; it appeared that this Angel had other abilities that were unknown due to it never being alive long enough to discover. _Fortunately, I have other tricks, too._

Forgoing the power of the a Fourth Angel, the boy focused on the power of the Angel of Might, the strongest of Adam's brood, and the Angel of Thunder, the octahedron that, in the original life, hurt him with such force that his heart practically stopped and he was left lingering between life and death. The Eva began to glow with a red aura, as if being flooded with a new type of power unknown to people. It was so intense that the umbilical cable snapped off its back and disintegrated into atoms! Then, its artificial muscles and nerves in its arms flexed with the new power as it lunged at the Angel, grabbing its body and sending a surging sensation throughout the boy's body.

"Aaaaurgh! This smarts!" Shinji shouted in irritation. "I'm going to rip your very soul in half!"

-x-

Boom! Several of the consoles within Central Dogma fried out from whatever it was that Shinji was doing, including Maya's, which lost its recording data on his synchronization ratio.

"Doctor Akagi, we might have underestimated the boy," she gasped. "His synchronization just hit a new high. It fried out the recording data streams when it went up to seventeen-hundred percent…and was still rising."

"Seventeen…hundred…" Ritsuko, Misato, Fuyutsuki and Yui uttered, unable to find rationale in this discovery.

"This is insane," went Misato.

"You'd be surprised at how intense the situation is now," said Takeru to her as he watched the Eva slam the Angel against the scorched hill, sending chunks of dirt and charred bark in the air. "Shinji's trying to get rid of the problem as quickly as possible with the least amount of collateral damage. Since the hill is already damaged, he can minimize the degree of damage since scorched land is devoid of any life. And he's, uh… What's that word I'm looking for? Pissed? Desperate? Driven?"

"Oh, damn!" Someone yelled, seeing as Unit-01 was now straining as it slowly ripped the Angel ring in half, spilling out a fluid that was like light onto the ground.

"The Angel's AT-Field is dissipating," Maya revealed, and then the Eva slammed the half-maimed Angel into the side of the hill again before letting go of its body. "What is he doing?"

The Eva brought its hands together and generated a glowing ball of orange energy in between its palms, identical to when it defeated the Angel that threatened to detonate the whole patch of land into an extension of the ocean.

"Rrrrrrrrrraaurgh!" It shrieked, thrusting its arms forward and unleashing the energy attack upon the Angel, incinerating it along with the hill in a blinding light!

-x-

It was such a marvelous light that was being shown to the world. This was what The Demoness saw. It was a light that promised an end to torment and retribution, a judge and executioner born of a child's need to end cruelty. Even as it felt like the light carried a burning sensation, the immortal woman stood her ground on the rooftop, getting the best view of the promise of untold power being shown.

 _And it's only a taste of what brought forth all layers of existence,_ she thought, able to see the Angel's body burning away to nothingness, not even the faintest bit of light that used to be a part of it remaining. _Sent back to the abyss of the eternal night, driven away from the light. Well done, Immortal Ikari. Well done. But what will you do next? The threat hasn't come to pass yet._

-x-

With less than half of the scorched hill remaining, Unit-01 fell to its knees as Shinji sighed a breath of relief as the Angel was no more. But something was off. The Quickening that was supposed to go to him hadn't come; once the death of an immortal was made in combat with another immortal, the victor would receive the loser's Quickening, with all their accumulated power and knowledge. Yet Shinji hadn't felt the Angel's at all, and it was bothering him in a bad way to not understand why.

"Can any of you down there tell me if I actually defeated this Angel?" He asked Central Dogma after turning the intercom back on.

"We're not detecting its AT-Field," he heard Ritsuko's voice. "Hold on. Oh, no, this can't be right. This isn't good."

Whoosh! It was that feeling again. The only thing that would inform Shinji or any other immortal of the presence of another immortal…and it was nearby.

"It's not dead," he realized. "Not yet."

"Worse than not dead," the faux-blond added. "It's not alone. A second AT-Field has been detected with a blue blood type."

Shinji looked up to the night sky, seeing something that, despite all impossibility, was floating in midair…and possessed a familiar shape.

 _How sick is fate to do me like this?_ He wondered, though feeling a little thankful that the shape of the threat wasn't an exact duplicate of what he knew scarred his original doppelgänger for the rest of what was a horrid excuse for a life. _Nobody, not even the people you know and want to keep safe deserve this fate. And that man… I gotta make sure he never gets his chance to try and hurt others the way he and his wife hurt me…and him._

The new Angel resembled an Evangelion, albeit a completely organic version, lacking the cybernetic armor and aesthetic features that marked it as NERV's property. There wasn't even a horn on this behemoth that looked pitch black and possessed a head with glowing, white eyes. Through the memories of his primordial self and the knowledge he had accumulated over the four years of immortality, Shinji could conclude that this Angel was none other than the one called Bardiel, the Angel of Hail, the so-called "Humiliated Son of God".

 _Not so much of any humiliation right now,_ he continued to think.

-x-

All of Central Dogma had to wonder right now if the Angels were capable of pulling off jokes because of the way this new one looked, resembling an Eva.

"This is wrong," went Maya.

"You have no idea how wrong, Ms. Ibuki," Shinji uttered. "If that were a real Evangelion and was possessed by an Angel with someone still inside its plug…there's no way you'd see me fight it until after the hostage crisis was resolved."

For some reason, Yui believed her son regarding this. It was like he refused to be anything more or less than how he chose to be in any situation he found himself in. Whatever had been originally intended for him was being challenged by him and others, including The Demoness.

 _There's no rule that states immortals can't kill regular people,_ she heard the woman in her head, _it's just a preference of his to avoid unnecessary killing because, unlike most of you, he doesn't want any personal deaths on his conscience that will…cripple him emotionally. Don't even try to do something like that one day. I need him as he is. You or your husband break him, you or your husband buy my contempt._

"Do you ever have anything else to say?" She uttered.

"What?" Fuyutsuki questioned. "What did you say?"

"The Demoness," she explained. "She was talking to me."

"She clearly enjoys what she's been able to do since she defeated the previous Angel," said Gendo in annoyance. "A little too much."

The new Eva-like Angel landed on the destroyed hill in front of Unit-01, snarling at the purple behemoth with disgust.

"This is insane," a woman on the lower levels uttered. "It's like two different Evas set in a death match against each other."

"Epic," added a man.

-x-

He could feel the presence of the other Angel inside Bardiel, wondering if these two messengers had planned to take him out at the same time; it would have been a violation of the Rules of the Game if they were like Shinji and The Demoness, but since they were large monsters, it didn't seem to be a violation and didn't make things any more complicated than necessary for Shinji to contend with. Fortunately, Shinji had been through this sort of thing before…with fatality and severity. He was partially relieved that this situation was different from what he went through and would have no qualms about taking out these two out.

-x-

 _What will you do, Immortal Ikari?_ The Demoness wondered as the Eva-esque Angel known as the "Humiliated Son of God" charged towards the purple Eva. _You have quite the predicament that seems to be a challenge for you to overcome. Perhaps looking through the eyes and mind of your parents will aid in giving me insight into your situation._

She then traveled subconsciously back to the bowels of NERV HQ and invaded the mental boundaries of Yui and Gendo Ikari, hoping to find some trace of understanding the depth of the current problem. With Gendo's mind, it was no question that the man had no love for his son, and had no qualms with causing him further pain that stemmed from his obsession with his wife, his hatred towards God and his disgust towards the world; to The Demoness, this man was just a clear example of one consumed by self-loathing, self-hatred, bias, lust, greed, everything that makes a person (it didn't matter if they were a man, a woman, even a child) every bit as wretched as the monsters they make or break…with the exclusion of herself. In Yui's mind, she barely found any meaningful knowledge that pertained to the situation her son was in; there was no trace of any current moments in which mother and child exhibited any affection or engaged in positive conversations with the intention of mending old wounds associated to the hurt feelings of abandonment and betrayal, not even a sign of medium-level civilly between parents and child.

 _So much distance, so much loathing, so much damage to the hearts,_ The Demoness saw, disappointed with the Ikari family's lack of deep-seated bonds that take years to build. _I could look into the minds of other families and they'd be more deep-seated than this shameful pair that use their own son like cannon fodder. But play with something dangerous for too long, and you will suffer significant repercussions._

She watched through their eyes how the purple Eva clashed with the black abomination like petty brawlers getting in the mud over loose change. The purple one fell back and tossed the black one over itself, sending it to the ground.

"What are you thinking, Shinji Ikari?" She uttered to herself, curious about his strategy. "What are you planning on doing?"

-x-

It was a gamble, but one Shinji had to take if he intended to preserve the world he knew and lived in, having no desire to see it undone. Willing the Eva to get back up, he returned to the catapult system and traveled down back to the Geo-Front.

"What are you doing, Shinji?" Misato asked through the intercom. "The Angels are following you down the catapult!"

"That's the idea," he responded. "I want them to follow me. I'm still the hunter, leading the hunted to something much greater."

"What are you talking about! If you let them down here, you risk crippling the entire agency with your stunt!"

"Isn't this the reason NERV exists, Ms. Katsuragi, to eliminate the Angels, no matter where they surface or go? I know what I'm doing. So the question is…do you know something I had to look deep within to find out that might be the opposite of what NERV does?"

-x-

That was an unexpected question to hear from Shinji. And the way he spoke when he asked, it was like he was accusing NERV of harboring a secret that he just claimed to find out about. The worst part was that Misato had no clue as to what he was talking about.

"What the Hell is he talking about?" She uttered, watching as Unit-01 made it back inside the catapult system in the pens, now making a move towards the pens themselves.

"That little brat," went Ritsuko, watching as the Eva-esque Angel appeared inside NERV HQ, chasing after the purple Eva. "He practically invited two Angels inside the base!"

"What is he doing?" Several people were starting to question, noticing that Unit-01 was taking paths designed for the Evas that led into an oversized shaft.

"Where does that shaft lead?" Misato asked Shigeru.

"I think it leads toward…Terminal Dogma," he answered her.

"Order the pilot not to go down there, immediately!" Gendo demanded. "Stop him!"

All the personnel understood that what was in Terminal Dogma was the base's LCL production facility, but nothing beyond that. Not a soul alive beyond Gendo, Ritsuko, Fuyutsuki and Yui (and quite possibly The Demoness, if she learned of this from an earlier encounter with them or through the power of the Angel she defeated) knew that what was really down there was something that needed to be protected at all costs, something that the Third Child was putting in jeopardy by letting himself be chased by the enemy.

"Shut down the synchronization between the pilot and the Eva," Ritsuko ordered.

"We can't," went Maya, trying to input the codes needed to do so. "The Eva's rejecting the codes to disable it."

"You don't suppose he knows what's down there, do you?" Fuyutsuki asked Yui, who had a look of dread on her face.

"He can't possibly know what's down there," she told him. "He wouldn't. He couldn't."

"I will take out the threat to the world times three," they heard Shinji's voice before the audio connection between the Eva and Central Dogma was severed.

 _Times three?_ Yui thought, and realization came hard and heavy. _He knows. He knows._

-x-

Terminal Dogma was as every bit as wretched as the primordial Shinji's memories had shown his current incarnation. A massive space of virtual nothingness, with the sole exceptions being what the people employed by NERV had built many years ago, including the artificial lake of LCL and the giant crucifix that held Lilith. As Shinji looked from within Unit-01, seeing this being for the very first time himself, the immortal child couldn't help but cover his mouth at the horrible sight below him.

"So, we finally meet, Lilith," he uttered under his mouth.

Lilith, exactly as she was perceived from alternate memories, resembled a giant humanoid made entirely out of a white material that resembled marshmallows with her lower half composed of many, many legs growing out of each other or the base of where her legs were supposed to be. On her head was the purple mask with the upside-down triangle with the seven eyes.

Shinji found this less scary than a version with Rei's face, somehow less capable of intimidating or preventing him from doing what he had set out to do here tonight.

"I can't really blame you for what happened in another existence, but this is for the good of the people that didn't ask for what was done to them. May you find it within yourself to forgive me for my transgression against you."

SLAM! The Eva-esque Angel landed several feet away from Unit-01, snarling and salivating.

"Guuuargh!" It growled.

"Right on time," Shinji expressed as Unit-01's arms glowed with the combined powers of the Angels of Thunder and Strength. "Time to put an end to you three for good.

The memories of the other life where Unit-01 was made to crush the Unit-03 Entry Plug and either maim or kill one of his friends echoing in his mind had Shinji move around the merged Angel and ensure that they were the ones in front of Lilith, enabling him to have the best shot possible for his strategy.

-x-

"…It's too quiet out there," said Toji to Hikari and Kensuke as they were huddled together in a shelter with their families. "Do you think it's over?"

"I don't know," answered Kensuke. "They would've mentioned something already."

"Maybe Shinji's still fighting, but from afar," suggested Hikari. "But he'll probably tell us when we see him later."

"The suspense is agonizing," Toji confessed.

 _You three worry so much for your friend,_ they heard The Demoness speak to them. _If it's any consolation to your concerns, I saw him go up against two Angels, both separately and merged together. One of them looked exactly like the Evangelion, only more organic instead of cybernetic. After that, Immortal Ikari led the merged threat underground where they've been since the last twenty minutes._

The three worried more over Shinji's current status. Leading two Angels underground minimizes the threat to the city, but they weren't sure what Shinji could do while moving around in what they felt was a confined space or with few options.

 _Oh, don't worry much, I've seen as much of the Geo-Front as I could from the eyes of those that have seen more than your friend has,_ The Demoness told them. _He has a lot of space down there to do what he will. It's in the hands of fate to decide how things will end, but if I understand the conviction of the Immortal Ikari, he will prevail because he knows leave the outcome of the Game for me to be the victor just yet. Besides, I really want to face him in the end, to have the perfect fight. It has been too long._

-x-

The energy gathering around Unit-01's arms build up until it was reaching a critical mass beyond what was believed capable for the Eva.

The second Angel, Armisael, manifested from behind Bardiel and the pair looked confused.

Bardiel then charged towards the Eva, its claws extended and ready to rip the abomination to pieces, pilot and all.

 _I will leave no trace of you behind,_ Shinji thought, and willed the Eva to unleash its charged attack against the Angels of Hail, the Womb and Lilith, manifesting itself as a stream of intense light that looked like fire.

"Aaaaaaaauurgh!" He shouted, feeling the LCL within the plug heat up.

The attack made contact with Bardiel and Armisael, and then with Lilith, causing strands of fleshy material to part with their bodies the way some film characters with sensitivity to certain environmental conditions were depicted to loose their flesh, such as vampires.

"Grrrrruurgh!" Bardiel roared as he was being burned away from the mortal plane.

"Aaaaahh!" Armisael shrieked as she was burned away for good this time.

Only Lilith was silent in her execution, going quietly into the night.

Ten seconds later, the Eva's attack ceased and the cybernetic organism fell to its knees before a half-melted cross where Lilith once hung.

Zap! The effects of the Quickening that was long overdue began to take their time around the Eva and Shinji.

"This is the worst part of any Quickening," he sighed, and the electrical power of the phenomenon consumed him. "Aaaaaaahhh!"

But this Quickening, much more potent than the previous ones because it was the augmented merger of the three fallen ones. And the share of power from Lilith had to be the strongest portion of the three.

-x-

Crash! The consoles in Central Dogma exploded with electrical surges, leaving charred remains as the personnel got up and backed away from them.

It lasted for a whole minute, lighting up the dark room with more light than anything else within the chamber, knocking out the holographic systems and everything else, including cell phones and tablets. When it ceased, the power turned back on and, with the sole exception of the consoles, everything else was functional.

"It seems like he did it," said Hyuga to Misato.

"Yeah, but we've gotten no response from him."

Beep! Maya Ibuki's tablet got an alert from the Eva, indicating that it was still active.

"The plug was ejected before the Eva deactivated," she explained. "The boy's out cold."

"But still alive," said Ritsuko, "and with a higher synchronization ratio, no doubt."

"Yeah."

Gendo, Yui and Fuyutsuki were trying to get around the very possibility that Shinji really did what he said he was going to do and destroyed Lilith alongside two Angels. While the two latter couldn't find it within themselves to really condemn the boy for his actions, the former was beyond angry over the situation.

Ring! Gendo's phone rang and he answered.

"Yes?" He questioned.

-x-

Returning to her hotel suite, The Demoness yawned and crashed onto the bed. She could feel the lingering effects of Shinji's Quickening, even though he was deep underground. And it was quite an interesting exhilaration for her. The matter he was involved in was nearing its conclusion, meaning the matter between them would commence in due time, enabling her to resolve the issue with deadly certainty.

 _Immortal Ikari…enjoy your recovery while it lasts for you,_ she thought, drifting off to sleep. _Your Goddess of Mercy will cease her protection of you soon enough._

-x-

Shinji awoke from what felt like a monster of a hangover or reinforced nap, finding himself in the trauma ward once more.

"You're finally awake," he heard Akira's voice say to him as he looked to his left, seeing her and Takuya sitting beside him.

"How long was I out?" He asked her.

"Two days," answered Takuya. "You really had us scared you wouldn't wake up."

"My apologies."

"I wouldn't worry too much about it," said Akira. "Your father, on the other hand, he's pretty upset with your actions, like you did something you weren't supposed to do."

"With him, everything I do is something I'm not supposed to do. He is not easy to impress or please, no matter what I do…not that I would try, that is."

"You should've heard what Takeru said to Gendo when he asked that he be part of the retrieval team to get you from where you defeated the two Angels," Takuya told him. "He up and said, _"Children don't exist to impress you with whatever it is you think they should do. They exist to impress you, regardless of your intentions or desires"_. When he saw your handiwork, Takeru was very impressed, wanted to claim that you, more or less, did the difficult job of saving the world."

"Not yet," Shinji expressed. "The majority of the Angels have all been dealt with, leaving just one left…assuming that history even repeats itself."

Akira stroked Shinji's left cheek and smiled.

"Either way, you did good, Shinji," she praised him. "Way to put an end to a threat that could've caused major harm to everyone…everywhere."

-x-

Once he received confirmation that the Third Child had awoken from his recuperation, Gendo ordered that he be brought to his office. He needed to draw the line with the boy about his recent actions; what Shinji had done two days ago had repercussions that were beyond salvageable. After the destruction of both Angels and Lilith, he received a call from the Committee that informed him that their prized possession, the embryonic Adam, was destroyed at around the same time as Lilith was. No Adam, no Lilith, no means to achieve the Human Instrumentality Project, leaving mankind trapped in its evolutionary standstill…and it was all the Third Child's fault.

Of course, the old men blamed Gendo for not stopping his son; they felt that he, being the boy's father, should've had him on a tighter leash and kept in check.

The door to his office opened and Takeru came in with Shinji, who was holding his tanto; the paternal grandfather had taken the weapon from the Entry Plug when he found Shinji and had only just returned it to him.

"Sit down," Gendo told his son.

Shinji sat down in the chair and placed his tanto on his lap.

"Just so that I have some clarity from two days ago, do you know what was down there in Terminal Dogma?" He asked Shinji.

"Yes, I do," he answered his father. "It was Lilith, a so-called source of all life on the planet. All known, terrestrial life, that is. The metaphorical mother of mankind."

"Then you knew she was a necessity to NERV."

"No. She was a resource to you. What made her so important to you? Why don't you tell me, since you're clearly upset about what I chose to do."

"By destroying Lilith, you may have doomed us all. Even if the Angels cease their attacks, we're likely to go extinct within a few years."

Shinji sighed and stated, "That's bullshit."

"What did you say?"

"I said that's bullshit!"

Takeru looked at Shinji and wondered where this conversation was going.

"Let's lose the kid gloves and just say what needs to be said," the boy continued. "I'm not some ignorant child whose parents kept the truth hidden from him, anymore. I have a greater clarity and awareness of what has been going on. I know that you wanted to use Lilith and her counterpart, Adam to cause a global phenomenon that would bring about the end of the world, and you're just pissed off because I made the choice to prevent that from happening."

"You can't fathom what trouble your actions have caused NERV, boy! You may think you saved the world, but all you've done is delay the inevitable!"

"You're wrong."

"You don't know that."

"And neither do you. You don't know what could happen now. Since you know about the Game, maybe the Prize can be used to restore the planet. Maybe even restore the Antarctic so people can reclaim the land taken by the coastal floods."

"You don't know that for certain, either."

"If he defeats The Demoness, a golden future can be within his reach," Takeru stated. "It is within the realm of possibility, Gendo."

"Don't encourage his behavior."

"Well, I'm not going to condemn his behavior, if that's what you want. I choose to say things like, _'Nice work out there', 'you saved people's lives today', 'you're a hero', 'be proud of your success'_ and such. Don't forget, Gendo, it was you that chose for him to come here. You have to be prepared for whatever actions or reactions that come from such a choice."

"And lately, I've come to regret such a choice," Gendo declared.

"Well, I don't regret it," countered Shinji, getting up out of the chair. "If you want to look down on me because I do things that go against your intentions, then look down upon me, Father. This is who I am, and I won't change my behavior to suit your needs. I'm a wild card, something you can't really control…and I'm not going to apologize to you for my actions."

He then turned to leave the office.

Takeru looked back and forth between father and son, pitying Gendo simply because he couldn't accept the fact that his son did a good thing and bring this war between people and large monsters closer to its conclusion. And then, he left himself to catch up to the immortal child.

"How do you feel?" He asked Shinji.

"From taking down the Angels or talking to my father the way I did?" Shinji responded.

"The latter."

"Honestly…I feel good. I felt bigger than him, saying what I said to him. If he wants to hate me for everything, let him. I don't owe him anything beyond making sure that we have the next day after tomorrow and the day after until who-knows-when."

"Can I get your honest opinion regarding your father?"

"Take your best stab."

"It was too late for me to try and make amends with him long before the Gathering even occurred, wasn't it?"

Shinji looked around his grandfather, back to the door leading into his father's office…and sighed heavily over the question. He had his own beliefs of it being past the point of no hope in mending his relationship with his parents, but his grandfather having lost the chance to redeem himself in the eyes of his own son was another thing.

"I'm afraid I can't answer that, Takeru," he confessed. "I'd be honest to only my feelings about him. I wouldn't be honest about your feelings. If you still have hope of reconciliation, then that's a good thing."

"Thank you, Shinji. You sound like Akira's kindness rubs off on you wholeheartedly."

"Coming from you, that's a great compliment."

-x-

She wasn't informed of the aftermath of the Angels' attack, but Rei was informed that she could go home until further notice. Whatever happened between the Angels and the Third Child, it was enough to cause catastrophic damage to the consoles in Central Dogma…and it infuriated Commander Ikari.

 _Most of NERV is, beyond any doubt, bothered by the boy's progress in defeating all but one of the Angels,_ she heard that woman's voice in her again as she walked up the stairs to her apartment. _One messenger left…and one wall left to cross over before personal matters become the new issue around this city._

Suddenly, the albino girl saw the same woman in front of her apartment door, but got the feeling that she wasn't really there.

 _Oh, I'm not really here,_ The Demoness explained. _I'm_ _asleep in my hotel suite. My body needs rest, but my mind is restless._

"What do you want?" Rei asked her.

 _Want? Well, while my body's rejuvenating for the next day, I'm on a nightly wander. You should reevaluate where you stand in your maker's life…unless he's already decided what to do with you…and you haven't done anything to retaliate or rebel from such a fate if it is bad. Now, I can explore the layers of your mind, and you're not very adequate at hiding anything from one such as I. Heh. You have a desperate need to be stripped of any semblance of life. One who isn't suited for living is one that lives each day of their lives without any degree of concern for their existence because they know they didn't leave their mark in the world. Even when you stand out._

"With the defeat of the Angels, there is little need for the Eva."

 _The same applies to you, as well. Be honest with me, girl. Does any thought of a life beyond what that man and his wife gave you entice you in the least? Does an existence beyond that of someone that exists only because of some predestined scenario give you any desire for more out of your future? Does even the next breath of fresh air mean anything to you? I've seen civilizations rise and fall over many generations of people that build them. They rise with good intentions, but can never stand with them for good. The one I hail from was a marvel among marvels, the largest and most powerful of them all, with advances in technology and resources you can only dream of…and it fell due to the same conclusion: The people that ruled it fell to unlawful desires. This world requires a leader that can't fall, one that can't be bribed or manipulated from those that live within the shadows. Someone like…me…and unlike your father figure, your precious Commander Ikari, I'll always have a need for someone that no one else wants. Someone like you. Think about it. You know where to find me if you decide for yourself._

The projection or illusion of The Demoness then disappeared, leaving the girl alone.

Rei was at a crossroads now; a woman that wasn't who she seemed to be was offering her a place at her side should Commander Ikari no longer have need of her…and it was starting to look like he truly no longer had any need of her. But was The Demoness out to destroy the world…or did she have a plan of her own to reshape the world the way she desired?

-x-

"…So, Shinji," went Akira to the boy as they and Takuya were eating breakfast the next morning, "just one Angel left to face?"

"That's right," he answered her, taking a sip of his miso soup. "I'm hoping that I won't require the need of the Eva for this last one, though."

"Why is that?" Takuya asked him.

"Because the last Angel…looks like a person. An albino, like Ayanami. So the question becomes…must I kill him…or can I save him?"

"If you can save him, then you should save him, Shinji," Akira told him, eating a rice ball. "View all of your options before you have to make a choice."

"But when that day comes and goes, you're going to have another serious problem," Takuya reminded Shinji as he chewed on a piece of celery.

"Yeah, but that's assuming the last messenger chooses to show up. The deadliest of the immortals may demonstrate the worst aspect of any criminal mind or the most deviant behavioral quality known to humankind."

"Which is?"

"Patience. When you want something so bad, you'll wait till all else is dealt with. She has the greatest degree of patience of any enemy that exists; she waited for the Gathering, slipping in and out of history, cutting down immortals on her blacklist, all the way to the present day. What's one more messenger compared to the final showdown between the last two immortals? The Demoness can wait a little longer."

-x-

Truth be told, The Demoness was a very patient woman. She needed to demonstrate it two years after she lost her past. Even as she flipped through the channels of her hotel television, the deadliest immortal dealt with her patience by recalling the good times she spent with her boyfriend…before she found out that her mother had him killed during the painstaking process that turned her into an immortal. She almost shed tears from the memory of the first time she kissed him, the first time he asked her out, their first date, even the first time they just made out by the beach.

 _Time,_ she thought, looking down at her dress, somewhat thankful that her centuries of extended longevity allowed her to develop a series of favorites from her time, and the one she was wearing was actually her thirty-seventh favorite. _What is time to an immortal? Time is only an illusion to those that feel its influence. It's an illusion meant to give mortals a sense of order and structure in their lives._

Then, she decided that she was going to put on a different favorite.

-x-

On the school rooftop, Shinji, Hikari, Kensuke and Toji were conversing over the current state of things revolving around NERV and the Angels.

"So…now that Lilith is gone," went Hikari in response to the revelation that the source of all life on the planet was no more, "there's just one threat left from these Angels?"

"Yep," Shinji assured them.

"And is there any description of what this last one looks like?" Toji questioned.

"Since nothing about the Angels seem to change, I can believe the last Angel will no doubt still resemble a boy of fifteen years, with pale skin, grayish hair and red eyes."

"Pale skin and red eyes? That sounds almost like Rei," said Kensuke.

"Hardly. People are shaped by their involvements with other people. You bring up people with falsehood beliefs, they'll be made to do what they can to make the beliefs real."

"But…you don't want to do to this Angel what you had to do with the other ones at all, do you?" Hikari asked him.

"Am I that obvious?"

"After seeing you survive electrocution inside the Eva and knowing that you risk your life, regardless of your immortality, you're…you've become easy to read, Shinji."

"And despite the violence of the world you live in," added Toji, "you're not a violent soul. I'd say you got what it takes to stop this last Angel and then defeat The Demoness, saving the world, and then…whatever it is you want to do with your future."

"Thank you, you three," he praised them.

"Hey, though," went Kensuke, leaning his head down in front of the immortal child, "what sort of abilities did you get from taking out the two Angels? I mean, you gotta tell us what, if anything, bro?"

Shinji chuckled; he figured that he could endure the questioning of what abilities he might've gained from the fallen Angels if it meant having these three teens as his friends.

-x-

Lilith was gone. Adam was gone. The Human Instrumentality Project was all for naught. There was no way to rework the scenario in any way to benefit SEELE.

" _There is no way to get around this mess of yours, Ikari,"_ SEELE 01 had informed Gendo during the last meeting over half an hour ago.

" _Without either Adam or Lilith, we can no longer achieve what we had planned since before Second Impact!"_ SEELE 10 had shouted.

" _What of Lilith's only true offspring?"_ SEELE 04 had questioned. _"What of Evangelion Unit-01? Can we use it as a substitute?"_

" _Unit-01 is compromised,"_ Gendo had revealed to the council, now looking at two photos of the fallen Seeds of Life. _"After the defeat of the Fourth Angel, Unit-01 was compromised in an extreme way that has been both a boon and bane to NERV."_

" _We were aware of the return of your wife, but not the aftermath of how the Eva still functioned for only the Third Child,"_ SEELE07 stated. _"We had reason to believe that he was the direct cause. How else would it explain the increased synchronization that has exceeded all previous expectations of what the Eva was capable of?"_

But Gendo had suspected that his son's immortality and consecutive Quickenings from the people involved in the Game and the Angels themselves made the boy the only one able to bend the Eva to his will. The increased synchronization being a side-effect of his immortal status and the restoration of his wife's body after a decade of being beyond his physical reach…and her repeated attempts at trying to sync with the Eva and being rejected each time.

" _Must we suspect you of hiding something from us concerning the Third Child, Ikari?"_ SEELE 01 suggested.

" _There's nothing being hidden by me,"_ he told them. _"The Third Child disclosed enough of himself in our last conversation."_

" _Is that so?"_

" _Yes. He claims that he knew what he was doing when he led the Angels down into Terminal Dogma, indicating that he knew about it when he wasn't supposed to. That's how he knew about Lilith and made the choice to dispose of her, thinking he would save humankind by doing so."_

" _If he had obtained knowledge he wasn't supposed to have access to, it's your responsibility to make sure that he doesn't act upon such Intel in a way that hinders us, Ikari. Your inability to keep the pilot in check has caused us all an insufferable degree of trouble for which there is no mending. We must ascertain exactly how much the boy knows and how to best deal with him now that his very loyalties are in question."_

Of course, the meeting concluded with the demand that Gendo bring the Third Child to SEELE for interrogation and disciplinary action. But it was a choice Gendo was actually pondering on whether or not to follow.

"Are you really going to do it?" Fuyutsuki asked him in his office; he was present during the entire meeting, but was silent the entire time. "Are you going to let the Committee speak to the boy just because he did what he felt he had to?"

"It's precedent that he disregards protocol each time he's sent out to face an Angel," he responded. "He never listens, suspects NERV of hiding secrets, and never leaves any usable remains of the Angels to work with."

"Even so, some of the personnel here feel he's deserving of a medal for his efforts in dealing with the Angels."

"His incompetence has doomed us all by destroying Lilith."

"I hope this has nothing to do with any sense of spite towards the boy simply because he was trying to ensure that the people of Tokyo-3 have their homes to return to. He's unpredictable, I won't deny that, but he got the job done each time they showed up. Before we found out about the Game, the Gathering and The Demoness. If anything, we should permit him to continue with dealing the Angels because it's clear that The Demoness won't go after him until after this matter is done, and it will be done soon…and we can't interfere in the affairs of immortals, meaning NERV can't protect him from her."

"Suppose she was killed before she could come after the boy?"

"I doubt you or anyone, not even SEELE, can find a way to stop her permanently. We have no idea who she really is or what else she's capable of. All we really know is…that she's dangerous and intimidating. She gives others a reason to be afraid of her."

"I'm not afraid of the concept of a woman scorned."

"But I'm more terrified of a woman able to gain every bit of information from people simply through her interactions and was able to inspire fear in the world by committing an act on such a grand scale that nobody wants to try anything in fear of instigating a war."

"She might be feared by others, but she doesn't scare me."

-x-

 _"…she doesn't scare me,"_ The Demoness read the mind of Gendo as she modeled in front of a large, ornate mirror, looking at herself in her ninetieth favorite dress.

 _Oh, you're scared of me, foolish man. You can't mask the feeling of fear. It's like blood in the water, an aroma in the air, a feeling which, when acted upon, can result in uncertain behavior._

The new dress she was wearing was very conservative and exhibited a blend between gothic and religious attire. It was also another one of her dresses to include trousers and was made of a blend of leather and silk. Black and purple, with small ribbon on her chest shaped like an upside-down ankh. If anything, the dress also helped to highlight her choker.

"Oh, I wish I had six more of each dress," she sighed. "So many things, so much temptation…and very little purity left in this pathetic shell of a world."

To be continued…


	18. Compartmentalized Assault

Creation began on 03-01-18

Creation ended on 03-10-18

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Immortal Ikari: Compartmentalized Assault

"…I can't believe this!" A young girl with long, red hair and blue eyes shouted as she was informed of a recent update in NERV from Japan. "Are you sure there's only one left?!"

"That's what the higher-ups are saying," a man with an unshaven smug answered.

"And this Third Child, this…little boy…defeated most of them?"

"That's right."

"Then I've trained for years to pilot the Eva, to face the Angels that would attack the human race and destroy the world… You mean to say that I've done it all for nothing? Absolutely nothing?"

It was quite a letdown in the eyes of the girl; ever since she could remember, she was told to pilot the Eva and be the best to face the Angels. And now, to know that there was only one left, and that she wouldn't be leaving Germany to go face it…was a blow to her pride and ego.

"I'm sorry, but after that phenomenon with all the world's nuclear missiles being sent up into space and this person called The Demoness being the cause of it all, nobody wants to risk starting a war with someone else. That's why the higher-ups here won't risk sending you and Unit-02 to Japan; they need you two as a nuclear deterrent in case of an attack on the country."

"This is a huge disgrace to everything that I stand for."

"Well, if people weren't so afraid of whoever The Demoness is, it'd be another story."

-x-

As school let out for the day, Shinji got on his minibike and prepared to ride home when he noticed Rei standing in front of him.

"Just so that you know, if you so much as try to lay a hand upon me, I won't hesitate to devastate your fingers," he warned her.

"I'm not here to fight," she informed him. "Last night, I was approached by the same woman who is as unpleasant as you are…and offered me a proposition."

"Is that so?"

"Do you not find it unusual that someone the same as you approached me with a proposition after disclosing to me information that was beyond my knowledge?"

"Yes, that is unusual, but don't compare me with her. We're not the same. Yes, we have certain similarities, but we are nothing alike, Ayanami."

 _He's right, you should know,_ the albino girl heard The Demoness' voice in her head. _We're nothing alike. He's been like this for only four years, not even a fraction of the length of time spent by others similar to him wandering the planet. I've been alive the longest out of any other person in history. Any other man, woman or child is leagues below myself._

Shinji noticed a slight twitch in the girl's left eye and wondered if she was on something new.

"But what is your point in asking me, Ms. Ayanami?" He asked her, wanting to get to the point of her question.

"If she gave someone like myself a proposition, should I accept?" Rei asked him.

"I can't answer that for you, Ms. Ayanami. If I did, I'd be taking away your right to decide for yourself. And I won't hand you a map that could show you the routes necessary for you to take. You can't rely on others to show you the right way, as there are many ways one can take. If you have free will, you can make your own choices, and each choice you make affects the choices made by others elsewhere. One can't take a book off the nearest shelf without influencing the accident of the furthest car. Causality. Everything is connected. Every action has many effects…"

 _And just like those around you, you have the ability to affect their decisions with your own,_ Rei heard The Demoness say to her.

"…Decide for yourself whether or not The Demoness' proposition for you is in your best interests," Shinji told her. "It'll be the first time I ever knew you to leave that man that loves only his wife…and cease your blind loyalty towards him."

He then started his bike up and put on his helmet, then rode off down the street.

"Blind loyalty," she repeated.

-x-

"…It looks like the people are falling back into their routine, Takuya," said Akira to her husband as they drove down the street in the city.

"Yeah, it seems that way," he agreed with her. "How long do you suspect it'll be before the world rebuilds its nuclear arsenal?"

"I pray they don't. Ever. They build, she'll dispose of them again. She'll meddle in the affairs of the superpowers of the world to ensure they don't do something to endanger her goals."

Their Prius came to a red light and the couple looked at the people around the corners on each sidewalk, seeing that they seemed to be readjusting to their usual routines.

"It doesn't stop me from worrying, though," Akira told her husband, tapping her fingers on the wheel, "what she could do next."

"Like what?" Takuya questioned.

"She might not be able to influence or control former immortals, possibly due to still being susceptible to returning to the Game if killed again, but she can still do whatever she wants with everyone else if she chose. Beyond that, she can influence multiple minds at once…so, I worry that at any time, in anyplace…"

"She could be up to something. She could take over people who are susceptible to her."

The light turned green and they resumed their drive down the street.

"Yeah."

"All the more reason I trust you to be the one driving right now. I don't trust myself to be behind the wheel if she did try something like that with me."

BEEP-BEEP! A police car was behind and they had to pull over.

"I don't believe this," Takuya sighed. "We weren't speeding."

"I'll resolve this," Akira assured him as she saw a policeman walk over to her door. "Is there something wrong, Officer?"

The man lowered to look at the couple and uttered, "This man has a history of harassing people on the road. He's so arrogant and full of himself that he's going to get in trouble, eventually."

The way his voice sounded, the way he looked at them…and the aura of intimidation he gave off just from the mere sight of him.

"Kami," Takuya gasps, realizing that this cop wasn't who they were facing.

"Oh, don't worry," The Demoness assured them. "I won't do anything to either of you. I'm merely watching the people, seeing how they behave as they cope with the unknown. I must say that I'm quite pleased with the recent events that have transpired with NERV."

"Is that so?"

"It has been written somewhere by someone, _'Be proud of your enemy and enjoy his success'_. In such regards, I really should thank your little descendant."

"What for?" Akira asked.

"Eliminating the Seeds of Life, Adam and Lilith. Of course, I was never in any real danger from them, but their removal from the equation that is the Game has become an unexpected bonus for me. Now, there are only two ways this whole thing can play out."

"I think you're letting your recent Quickening from the Angel go to your head a little."

"Maybe…but I'm not foolish enough to do anything against any of you just yet. And when I do, it'll be as I am, not through some mortals. I must shape the unknown future with my hands and the powers I possess. I can't trust or rely upon others to do it for me."

"Shinji will be your downfall, The Demoness."

"Perhaps, but not until he defeats the last Angel. I'll be waiting and watching. Have a nice day."

The policeman shook his head and looked at the pair.

"Uh…drive carefully, ma'am," he expressed towards Akira, sounding confused.

"Yes, Officer," she responded, and drove off.

-x-

"…Hard to comprehend in its entirety," went Misato, looking at the monitor displaying Shinji's face in the Entry Plug.

"He's a freak of some other nature," added Hyuga, among those bothered to the extreme by this.

"He's a god among us insects," expressed Shigeru.

"Is the equipment working properly, Ibuki?" Ritsuko asked her protégé, hoping this was just a technical malfunction.

"We had to use the consoles from our reserve labs," the boyish girl explained. "This is as crystal clear as it's going to get for us."

On the consoles displaying graphs pertaining to the a Third Child's synchronization ratio, the numbers just kept going up every few minutes. And each time the boy decided to inhale through his nose, it seemed like his sync ratio would increase by few hundred points, causing the faux-blond woman to want to back away until the ratio decreased by a small degree. But nobody was calm due to the fact that the boy's sync ratio was registering past twenty-three-hundred percent, and the machines were just barely able to cope with discovery.

"This is insane," Ritsuko expressed. "His synchronization, even if it were just one-hundred percent, would be within tolerable levels. This high a synchronization should be causing him problems… Yet, he's right in front of our eyes, looking like it's nothing serious."

Unfortunately, Yui, who was also present within the room, had her suspicions that her son's immortality and Quickenings were the cause of his high synchronicity with the soulless Eva. That and the loss of Adam and Lilith, something he wasn't at all concerned about because he viewed the people of the city as what really mattered because they have their homes to return to.

"As much as there are times where I want to slap him for his disregard for orders," Misato confessed, "he's eliminated most of the Angels and protected the city. He's protecting what needs to be protected."

"With what's happened, we might need him as the country's nuclear deterrent against whoever is petty enough to declare war on us," said Hyuga.

"Would we really try to make Shinji go to war with people?" Maya questioned. "Surely, he must have plans of his own for when he's through with NERV."

Except nobody seemed willing to answer whether or not the boy had intentions to leave the agency after the Angels were defeated and their threat upon the human race negated. Not even Yui could bring herself to think of her son leaving.

 _You know that he's destroyed any agenda you yourself had that involved him, so why try to cling onto something that he's not even trying to hold onto?_ She heard The Demoness' voice in her head again. _Now, I can't read his mind with this power like I can yours or your husband's, but I don't need to when just engaging him in conversation tells me everything I need to know and more. Your son has…how does one of today's generation say it so bluntly to one of the previous generation? Oh, yes. He has moved beyond the familiar ties that were severed too long ago that have no hope of being mended. He won't let himself be deluded by any false promises of you three being together when it was clearly not meant to be. It's funny to the point where I wish I could laugh at how mature he's become under the Maternity Samurai's protection. The boy is a minor echo of my own past with my mother, may her soul burn in the abyss for eternity…and he did in four years what took me over forty to do: He gave up any hopes of getting back the family he had to being content with the family he has._

 _You're wrong,_ Yui thought.

 _Oh, really? What if I'm right? What will you do, then? Even if there is a chance and only a chance, you know what awaits him on his path. The Game is almost at its conclusion. The days, hours and minutes draw ever so closer to the finale. Who will be left standing? The littlest immortal…or the deadliest immortal? The boy that put his mother behind him for betraying him…or the woman that killed her mother for betraying her? Your precious science can't answer that question, can it? How can you answer when nothing from science or philosophy can answer the unanswerable questions that exist?_

"Shinji, we're done for today," said Ritsuko, ending the test. "I think we all need a break from him for the rest of the week."

Within the plug, Shinji opened his eyes and exhaled from his mouth. He was glad the test was over. They were getting to the point of unnecessary now because it was almost over with the Angels. All he had to do was face the last one and do what he intended to, and that would be all.

-x-

"…So, he's going to let the Committee speak to him?" Yui had asked Fuyutsuki an hour after the synchronization test in the cafeteria.

"He's considering it," he informed her, sliding aside his empty salad container. "With the loss of Adam and Lilith, they'll be looking for someone to hold accountable for this unforeseeable slight. It's usually the one in charge of the mission to eliminate the Angels, but I doubt they'll blame Captain Katsuragi."

"So, they'll likely either blame Gendo…or Shinji."

"Yeah…unless they get an acceptable excuse from one of them explaining why and excuse this…blunder that was made."

"What do you think?"

"Me? Professionally, I would say that Shinji's actions come with the job, with the unpredictability. His refusal to follow the rules is something he clearly learned from someone, and his gambles with stunts that defy rationale have ended up saving the city more than NERV's security protocols were supposed to. Personally…I'm… Actually, I'm relieved that he did what he did. Whatever it was that he thought would have been better than what was originally intended, he must've thought it was the lesser of two evils, if he even believes in such a thing as evil. And like each and every other response to the threat of the Angels, he made the choice that had nothing to do with logic or people's beliefs."

"And yet… Sometimes, I have to wonder if…in his own way…he's punishing his parents by making sure they can't do anything he wouldn't allow anyone else to do because he doesn't know any better."

"You think he's punishing you two?"

"Either that or The Demoness has been poking around my head enough times that she's convinced that there's nothing stopping her from going after him…except for the last Angel."

Suddenly, several personnel members were running into the cafeteria, murmuring and gasping.

"What's going on?" Yui questioned, and she and Fuyutsuki got up.

"Hey! What's going on?" Fuyutsuki demanded from two of the personnel that just ran inside.

"Commander Ikari," said the female member. "He just attacked the Third Child as he was getting on his bike. He…he shot at him."

"He did what?!" Yui gasped.

-x-

He didn't feel any bullet go through his body, but as he got up, Shinji saw that his bike's back tire had been blown off. It felt like a new knife was run through his chest again as he looked at his father, who was holding a gun in his left hand.

"I hope you have a rational reason for why you shot at me," he told him, making no hint that he was angry. "Otherwise, I will not overlook this offense."

"You," Gendo uttered. "You're more trouble than you're worth. You caused the destruction of Lilith. You caused the destruction of Adam. You ruined mankind's future. You are such a disappointment. Then again, you always have been."

Shinji removed his coat and unsheathed his tanto.

"You attacked me," Shinji retorted, raising the blade up defensively. "By right, I'm allowed to use lethal force to defend myself if you persist. Also, I want you to pay."

"I haven't shot you personally yet."

"Actually, you did. My grandfather and I worked long hours on my bike. You just shot at a piece of my external soul. I demand compensation from you."

Now Gendo was confused about the way his son was reacting. He expected the boy to be enraged over being shot at by him and made to topple over and hit the ground, but while the boy was indeed angry, it was over the minibike that looked like a streamlined sports bike model that motorcycle hobbyists and enthusiasts obsess over.

"Are you kidding?" He questioned, and shot at him.

"Aaaurgh!" Shinji groaned, feeling the bullet penetrate his waist. "Why'd you do that? I loved this shirt."

"Oh, shut up!"

BANG, BANG, BANG! Gendo shot him three more times, leaving holes in his pants.

"I loved these pants, you dickhead!" Shinji yelled at him.

The people witnessing the boy getting shot at by his father were confused about what the kid should've been upset about. Instead of with himself being harmed, he was getting enraged over his bike and clothes.

"Gendo!" Yui yelled as she, Fuyutsuki and Takeru ran out of the building. "Stop!"

But Gendo fired again and Shinji sidestepped out of the way.

It happened so fast. Shinji ran like a bullet, unhindered by his gunshot wounds, and slashed the gun out of his hand.

"Aah!" Gendo howled as he reeled back from the knife attack cutting into his hand.

"Haaah! Ha!" Shinji yelled, jumping up and wrapping his feet around his neck. "You're mine!"

The man felt his center of gravity shift to his left where Shinji wrapped him, and fell forward. Then, he felt his legs in the air and soon his back on the ground. His son was looking down at him with his blade held against his neck.

"Oh, you have no idea how much I thought about this," he heard Shinji say to him as he lowered down to meet his gaze. "I even thought of doing it to you that day in your office. I would've been rid of you for good. But you know what keeps me from crossing that line? What keeps me from committing parricide out of sheer contempt towards you and Mother? I hate what you two did when I was young and naïve, I won't deny that. I hate you for still wanting to bring about the end of the world, even when you have her back in your life. But I won't kill either of you. No matter how much I detest your goals, no matter how much I resent the both of you because of the Eva, I refuse to let my hatred of you condemn my soul into the darkness. I can't hate you enough to want you dead. Ever."

Gendo couldn't believe this! His own son confessed to hating him and Yui…but couldn't bring himself to hate them to the point of wanting them dead. And all because he didn't want his soul to be overwhelmed by hatred. Even as he pulled the tanto blade away, he couldn't believe that Shinji, who had killed people before, people decades, centuries, even millennia older than him, who had slain Angels to save people that were going to die no matter what he did, didn't have it in him to murder the both of them because he followed his conscience.

It must've had something to do with his upbringing and protection by Akira; the former immortal had to be the cause of his son's unwillingness to do the unthinkable. Either that…or Shinji's always been a pacifist, always trying to avoid confrontation unless he had no other alternative.

"Whatever hatred you have for me, deal with it," Shinji told him as he walked away, back to his bike. "You live with hatred in your heart for too long, it'll poison your soul beyond recognition."

The security detail came over and picked up Gendo's gun.

"Shinji?" Yui spoke to the boy.

"I'm fine," he responded. "He broke my bike and ruined my clothes. I demand compensation for the damages."

Takeru looked at Gendo and Shinji and sighed, "It doesn't matter if his bike is personal property, a member of NERV attacked and damaged his bike. It's only right that Shinji's well-compensated for his pain and suffering. How much are we talking, Shinji?"

"The equivalent of three-hundred-seventy-five US dollars, minus the tax."

"I'll step on Gendo's back and make sure you're compensated for this…unexpected slight against you."

Shinji nodded and then re-sheathed his tanto. He looked at his mother, who seemed undeniably horrified to know that her husband shot him four times, and then turned away.

"So much for keeping this part of my life hidden from the world," he expressed. "This blunder was seen by many. You can't make them forget someone that looks like a pint-sized brat getting shot at by his old man."

"Oh, this was quite unexpected," the three heard a female voice that made Shinji cringe. "Stupid fool, thinking that he could circumvent the path of the Game for himself by killing an immortal. He's not the first person to think that way, but there's not a day that even I would appreciate it if people would cease trying to find ways to benefit from other people that involve intentionally harming them…or in this man's case, attacking someone out of sheer spite."

They turned to face the man from Section Two holding Gendo's gun and saw that he, along with the other eight men in suits, had become possessed by The Demoness once more.

"Why am I not surprised?" Shinji sighed.

"You're not too hard to track down, Immortal Ikari. So long as there's someone within the realm of my influence near you…and there aren't that many people that used to be immortal who are still protected from this power to see into and dominate the mind. And besides…I know you don't have it in you to seek your parents' death. Your need to keep from killing out of anger or just to settle a score… Noble. Foolish…but noble. You clearly get this quality from your ancestral grandmother, as she herself refused to kill anyone out of anger…and it takes a toll to stay true to yourself."

"What do you want?" Yui asked her, clearly not in the mood to be in her presence.

"I don't care much for the Rules of the Game myself, but I respect them enough to remain unknown in the fact that I'm immortal," The Demoness uttered through a different suit. "My consciousness has infested the whole of the Geo-Front with the intention of making sure your disgrace of a husband's actions on the boy don't become known to the world. Nobody has the right to know…until after the Game is won."

"You can't protect him," said Gendo to her.

"Protect him from who?" She asked through another suit. "Myself? Himself? Your wife…or you? Anyway, I'm not protecting him. I'm protecting my bounty. He and I are all that remain in the Game. I won't come after him until the final Angel is dealt with, so he's protected from me as it is. However, such protection is not afforded to those who treat their familiar ties like they're expendable…like you two."

"And I take it this doesn't have anything to do with your own hatred towards your mother?" Yui asked, surprising Shinji.

"You're the egghead," all nine suits responded in unison. "You decide."

"Everyone that saw or heard of this act will forget about it, so I suggest you make up something to fill in the gaps in case they find themselves wondering what is wrong," the lead suit holding Gendo's gun stated, "and seriously, compensate your son by getting his bike fixed."

Then, the suits fell down, incapacitated, along with the dozens of personnel standing outside the giant pyramid of glass and steel that were under the immortal woman's influence.

-x-

"…The damage is extensive, but not severe," said Takuya to Shinji and Akira as he examined the bike in the apartment building's garage. "The back tire, exhaust piping, fuel tank and the brake chain all need to be replaced and the exoskeletal frame to hold the back tire has to be reinforced before the bike's rideable again."

"In other words, two weeks without wheels?" Shinji asked, wearing a new set of clothes to replace the ones his father ruined with his spiteful brutality, holding a socket wrench in his left hand and a screwdriver in his right hand.

Takuya looked at the boy and smiled.

"I feel as though you insult my mechanical skills, Shinji," he uttered. "I may have a bum knee, but my hands are still the best at what they do. With a helping hand or two, this baby can be repaired within a night."

"I got no plans for tonight."

"Bad knee," went Akira, "good knee, no knee, I'm all in for it, too."

-x-

"…I didn't really take you for a drinker, Mr. Nagisa," said Misato as she saw Takeru in the NERV bar, nursing a bottle.

"My first drink as a man made mortal again," he sighed, not bothering to hide his former shadow life. "I just found out today that my only son tried to hurt his own son out of spite towards him. How do you live with knowing such a thing? How do you live with knowing your only son hates his own son…out of spite? Bad enough that my grandson hates his parents only because of a past transgression they committed, but it's unsettling that I may have to give up on trying to reconcile with my son because of his spite."

"Why'd you leave your family?"

"I feared I'd put them in danger due to a situation I had no control over. You know about Shinji being immortal, right? I asked him to take away my immortality. He did…and I was grateful. I'm glad that I'm mortal again… But Gendo… I think I'm forty years too late for reconciliation."

"Forty years. That's a long time for someone to hold any grudges or resentment towards someone else…and be consumed by them. But if you give up on him, what will you do?"

"Whatever I can do for Shinji, I guess. He's not his father's replacement, but he does want to do better than his old man, be better than his old man."

"Actually, he wants to be better than both his parents. I still remember when I tried to compare him to his father, and he ripped a table bolted to the floor off and threw it aside, yelling that he wasn't like his parents and that I shouldn't compare him to them."

"Some say the greatest rage is that of a child's. They're fragile, resilient, cheerful, frightened, emotional, vulnerable, insecure, uncertain, unpredictable. I've seen the footage of Shinji's actions and reactions against the Angels inside the Eva. He's not like other children when angered; it takes him a great deal of willpower to hold himself in check from going too far on people he knows he shouldn't. He's not a violent soul. He doesn't seek out anyone to hurt them, but will do what he has to in order to stop his own involvement in such conflicts."

"All I heard recently was that he took his father out over a dispute he started. How does a little boy take out a grown man?"

"You get the better of them."

-x-

The Demoness, once more outside on the streets, was doing something she didn't normally do with her time, but decided to make the best of it: She was looking at the various bikes and motorcycles of one of the city's hobbyist shops.

"Do you see anything you like, ma'am?" A young man asked her as she examined a Ducati Monster bike.

"Yes, I do," she answered him.

On a personal level, she thought of buying a bike, but then decided against it for different reasons. Not everything was meant to be possessed. She then checked the retail price for the bike and found it was less than the equivalent of two-thousand in American currency, minus the tax and cost of delivery. Even though she had the means to procure such a machine, she still decided against it.

"I shall be going now," she told the man, not because it was getting late outside, but because the night still held many possibilities for her.

"Ma'am, you've probably heard this before, but I must ask," the man said to her before she could walk out the door. "Has anyone ever told you that you look like an angel?"

She turned back to face him and answered, "Many, many times, young man."

And then she stepped out. She was gaining information from people she spoke with faster than she had prior to her Angel-enhanced Quickening; before, the information was slow to come, but steady in its pace, allowing her the time needed to carefully peel away the layers of others and know everything about them…and what she just learned from the bike shop owner was more than she cared less for in the honest people who never made so much as one dark deal under the table in exchange for anything. Even the history lesson learned from these three friends of the Immortal Ikari's was most perplexing because she saw nothing in such a relationship with these three that would make sense for a little boy that couldn't die unless decapitated; the three teens had practically nothing in common with the boy, had nothing to offer him, didn't even match him intellectually, and yet he chose them for friends, regardless of their differences…because they saw his Quickening and had to be confided in. She saw no point in his friendship with the three; they were mortal, with fleeting lifespans that were insignificant, meaningless beyond what an immortal required to survive in their shadow social life.

 _These mortals,_ she thought, deciding a drive in the Prius would compensate for the lack of a bike, _they make no sense, anymore. They try to remain pure, but they can only do so much to stay untainted by the sin that exists in this world. Many of them that live with their purity deserve to embrace the fullness of life_ _…_ _just as there are those that die because of their sins that deserve to be weighed down by their impurities. There's no_ _…_

She never finished her next thought…and couldn't comprehend the minor discomfort she felt in her chest, followed by the discomfort in head as she fell to the ground.

-x-

What other choice did she have if she stayed on the path that was her involvement in Commander Ikari's original intentions? If there was truly nothing for her beyond helping him reclaim his wife, and he had her back in his life because of something to do with the aftermath of the Fourth Angel's defeat by the Third Child, Rei Ayanami felt she had no other reason to follow Commander Ikari any longer. What The Demoness had offered her, a purpose and a place in her future of the world…was becoming enticing and feeling more accepting than the former purpose she had.

" _Unlike your precious Commander Ikari, I'll always have a need for someone that no one else wants,"_ she remembered what The Demoness explained in her proposition to her. _"Someone like you. You know where to find me if you decide for yourself."_

And Rei did know where to find the immortal woman. She knew where she was going to be most of the time.

" _Decide for yourself,"_ she heard the Third Child say to her. _"Decide for yourself."_

She grabbed her coat and left out her apartment.

-x-

The Demoness' eyes snapped opened, seeing a man dressed in filthy clothes with hideous teeth about to climb atop her. Her first reaction to such a horrible sight was to defend herself from him.

"How much?" He asked her.

She forced her way into his filthy, diseased brain and forced him to back away in pain.

"Aaaurgh! Aaah! Gaaaurgh! Stop! Please! Aaaurgh!" He cried out in agony as she got up, finding them in an alley.

She ignored his suffering as she examined her chest and found a small tear in her dress; she deduced that she had been shot from a distance and was incapacitated, followed by a second shot to her head, judging from the fading sensation she felt on the back of her scalp.

 _Who was foolish enough to try and kill me and then dump me in the garbage?_ She wondered, grateful that a mortal didn't attempt to take her head off as she felt her neck.

Her eyes widened at the feeling of her neck. Or rather, what she didn't feel on her neck. The choker that she received from her boyfriend over ten-thousand years ago, her greatest keepsake from her past, was no longer on her body.

"Aaaaurgh! Please! Help me! Please!" The man staggering away from her groaned as she had turned to face him.

"My choker," she uttered, using Arael's power to force him onto his knees. "Where is my choker?! Tell me!"

"What choker? I didn't see any choker on you! I swear!"

"Don't lie to me!"

She pierced his mind, exploring his past for the whole day, and seeing absolutely nothing to indicate that he knew anything about her choker. In fact, this was the very first time he saw her and thought she was a working girl. Digging a little further, she found that he was approached by another man that informed him of looking for someone within the alleys of Tokyo-3, that it'd be worth his time to look for a pretty woman laying on a garbage heap. Someone like her. He may have known nothing about her possession, but his involvement was no accident, only a convenient method to influence his cooperation in a move against her.

"This man that told you to look in alleys for me," she questioned him as she knelt in front of him, "have you seen him before?"

"No! No!" He cried out, feeling like his brain was about to explode. "He just gave me some money and told me to start looking in alleyways for a pretty woman! I swear, I don't know anything! I swear!"

Oh, The Demoness believed him. She believed him because he was willing to say anything she wanted to know that he could tell her to stop the pain he was feeling in his head. Unfortunately, this didn't change her feelings toward her missing choker, which she wanted back, and a homeless man that couldn't tell her where it was or who took it…was useless to her as he was to the very function of society.

"Gaargh!" She yelled at him, and his head snapped back with such force that he fell back, his face locked in intense agony. "I want…my choker back. I want…whoever is responsible. I want…payback."

She walked out of the alley, finding herself three blocks from where she parked her rental Prius, and quickly went to the car. But when she got to it, she found that it was in worse shape than she was. The tires were slashed, the windows shattered and the engine gutted out. Written on the doors was a message addressed to her in the form of graffiti, reading, _"STAY AWAY FROM US"_.

"Stay away from who?" She questioned, angry that whoever attacked her and had her choker taken had left a threat upon her life, and pressed her left hand against the vandalized vehicle. "Reveal to me…who is responsible."

She saw the car being damaged by several men in black suits with dark shades, but beyond that was not much to work with; a lot of men wore dark suits and shades. But then she realized something that actually told her more than what she knew: The men in dark suits that had been assigned to watch the Immortal Ikari were similar to the ones that totaled her car, meaning that it was the paramilitary agency that likely attacked her…and more than likely stole her choker.

 _NERV,_ she thought. _You crossed a line with me, and I will show you the error of your arrogance towards me with the twin blades of beauty's fury and retribution._

-x-

"…Hmm?" Shinji mumbled, waking up to the alarm clock on his iPhone. "Oh, man."

Last night was a train wreck of working over the bike, getting it back together and looking like new. And after having his seventh cup of lemonade, he just lost track of time and couldn't recall anything else just yet.

"Ahh… Last night," he heard Takuya groan as he got up from where he crashed, "we got things done to breathe life back into this bike."

"Uh-huh," Akira added as she woke up beside him. "All it needs now is a test drive."

They had all crashed and burned in the garage, but the bike, true to Takuya's word, had been fully repaired and was looking like it was never ruined.

"I know I shouldn't, but I'm gonna do it, anyway," Shinji told them, and then hugged his bike. "Thank you, Takuya. Thank you, Akira."

-x-

"Oh!" The bike shop owner gasped as The Demoness returned, though lacking her choker. "Hello again, ma'am."

"I'll be looking around for a bike this time to buy instead of window shopping," she told him, and began to browse around the display of motorcycle brands.

"Oh, well, do take your time, ma'am," he told her.

"This bike right here."

It was less than two minutes and she chose a Suzuki GSX-R series model sports bike, with a black and gray paint job.

"Oh…well, okay, ma'am. When would you like for it to be dropped off for you?"

"Oh…I don't want it to be dropped off. I don't need it delivered to me. I plan to ride it once I pay for it."

The man was surprised! Normally, most buyers would pay extra to have their bikes dropped off at where they resided, but this woman wanted to ride it out of the shop after she paid for it. And…there was something different about this woman, too; it was like something terrible had happened to her in the few hours since she was last here, and this was something to do with her reacting as a consequence.

"Uh, well…here's the total cost for the bike, plus the cost of fueling it," he informed her, giving her the total cost of her purchase.

The Demoness reached into her trousers and pulled out her wallet, extracting the Asian currency she needed for her purchases in Japan.

"Uh…uh…thank you, Ms. Akuma. I hope you enjoy your new bike. Do have a nice day out."

"Oh, I intend to try, sir. I need a pair of good wheels."

She then took the copy of her purchase agreement and accepted the key to the bike before she rolled it to the outside of the store onto the street.

"I say this only as a safety precaution, ma'am, but have you ever ridden a motorcycle before?" The man asked her.

"Yes, I have," she answered. "I was doing stunts since before your parents were even in diapers."

SCREECH! The back wheel burned rubber loud as The Demoness sped off into the streets.

-x-

Yui was at a loss for words as she looked at her husband and the small item that was on his desk in his office.

"Is that what I think it is?" She finally asked him, pointing to it.

"It is," he answered back.

"How did you… Why did you even…"

"Because I needed to prove that she's not someone to be afraid of. It was easy to take it by having Section Two have random, compartmentalized instructions. That woman was unlikely to know what was going on all the time if people don't know everything they're told…and she's vulnerable to sniping."

"You had her sniped? Gendo, this isn't right. If she's still alive, she's bound to find out. This could represent a part of her identity, it could be dangerous if it got in the wrong hands or worse. We need to get rid of it."

"It could be used as a bargaining means against her if she is still alive."

"And what if she's not interested in bargaining?"

"Then it will be disposed of if it doesn't have any value."

On his desk was the metallic choker of The Demoness; the Section Two agent that brought it in had informed Gendo that removing it was unusually difficult due to its tangled, twisted structure, as though there were no means of unlocking it because it appeared as though it had been formed around the neck itself instead of being made to be worn around the neck. Even though it looked harmless, its presence still had a sense of the woman that wore it lingering around, like it was around since before people started making jewelry. Its goth and skull motifs disturbingly off-putting and creepy.

"I must put my foot down and insist that this…this thing be removed from the base," Yui told him. "Immediately and indefinitely."

But Gendo wasn't afraid of the possibility of The Demoness trying to come for this chunk of metal. If anything, he anticipated her arrival. He would prove to himself further that this woman was not invincible and had weaknesses just like any other human being. And when he was done with her, he'd find a way to gain this mysterious Prize that she was after if she bested the Third Child in a fight to the death.

Ring! His desk phone rang and he picked up.

"Yes?" He questioned. "She's returned to the hotel? A motorcycle? What? What is she doing there?! Get her away, immediately!"

He hung up and Yui became suspicious of the new situation.

"Well?" She spoke up.

"Section Two reported Rei at the same hotel being used by The Demoness," he explained. "She returned less than twenty minutes ago on a motorcycle that she apparently purchased from a bike shop after her Prius rental was found incapable of meeting her mobility requirements."

-x-

This feeling of the air on her neck was so foreign without her choker, and she hated this feeling very much. It had been a part of her for so long, she never took it off. It was the best part of her because it connected her to him.

 _I must get it back,_ she instructed herself as she got off the elevator and walked down the hall to her hotel suite. _Hmm?_

Standing in front of the door was a young girl with pale skin and blue hair, wearing a school uniform and dark coat. She turned to face her, revealing herself to be Rei Ayanami.

"You caught me at a bad time, Ms. Ayanami," she informed her.

"My apologies," Rei told her. "I just needed… No. I want to know. Your proposition from before… What would my role be in your agenda? Where do I stand as someone you'll have a need for?"

The Demoness sent her ideas of this girl's future directly into her conscious with her mental abilities, showing her the possibilities therein that could be a reality if she won the Game and claimed the Prize.

Rei's eyes widened at the sight and very thought of such possibilities if she sided with The Demoness. She wouldn't be cast aside as some expendable resource, not some pawn in anyone's grand scheme. She would be…a person, someone affiliated with a woman as old as the known civilizations and had a plan for everyone that was greater than whatever Commander Ikari had planned for the world. And The Demoness…would be the one in control, the one to decide what was acceptable, who was right and who was wrong, a living goddess, and she would be the first of her followers. It was all too good to be true, and none of it was yet.

All she had to do was wait for the boy to fall at the sword of this woman…and there was no telling what was in store for everyone.

"Interested?" She was asked by her.

Rei bowed her head and then knelt before her.

"I am yours to command, The Demoness," she expressed, her decision made.

"Miss Ayanami!" They heard some men shout out in the hall, and they saw five men in suits. "Get away from her! She's dangerous!"

The Demoness stood in front of Rei and forced her will upon them, just like she did that homeless man in the alley.

"Aaaurgh! Uurgh!" They all groaned, feeling like their brains were being squeezed, yanked, compressed and prodded all at once as they either fell to the floor or against the walls. "Aaaurgh! Gaaugh! Waaah!"

She explored their past as she tortured them, extracting information for her own use…and found one detail that put a frown on her face; the suit holding his head in the back of the rest of the five was the guy that removed her choker…and gave it to the Immortal Ikari's father!

"Get up," she ordered him, and he did, but not of his own accord.

"Aaaaurgh!" He groaned, his legs slowly walking him towards the woman.

"I need you to act as my errand boy before you feel any sense of relief," she told him. "I want you to call your boss and tell him something important. You understand what important is, don't you, mortal? People stress that word many times."

-x-

"Um, is it just me, or did this place get darker?" Takuya asked Akira and Shinji as they drove their Prius into NERV HQ.

"I know exactly what you mean," Shinji expressed, getting the same feeling of darkness emanating from the base. "Something doesn't feel right about this place, anymore."

"It's only been a day since we were last here," Akira reminded them. "What could've happened in the few hours since our departure and return?"

"Something not good, that's for certain," Takuya assured.

They parked in the garage like always, next to Misato's Renault, rarely, and walked to Central Dogma as they always did. But as they did, Shinji got a bad feeling that something was just out of sorts with NERV today. It was like…there was a new darkness lingering or trying to spread about the base's infrastructure, only he couldn't wrap his finger around what it was or why.

To be continued…

A/N: Oh, now we're in some new trouble. What do you suppose are the chances of The Demoness actually being merciful towards NERV as a whole?


	19. The Devil's Mistress

Creation began on 03-10-18

Creation ended on 03-16-18

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Immortal Ikari: The Devil's Mistress

Ring! Gendo picked up his office phone again and sighed at what Section Two might've had to report to him.

"I trust you were able to get the First Child successfully," he uttered to the agent that called.

"Wash your neck," the man on the other end uttered.

"What?"

"Wash your neck…and wait for the fall of her blade."

The next thing he knew, a sound that was like something wet was popped and was followed by a thud.

"Did you get that, Gendo Rokubungi-Ikari?" A female voice uttered, and Gendo couldn't fight back the chill that ran down his spine. "Wash your neck and wait for the fall of my blade. I shall be calling again, an hour from now. And as for your First Child… Maybe you should hear from her what she thinks about the current events that have transpired."

A small moment passed and someone else spoke on the line.

"Commander Ikari," Rei's voice went, "why did you steal from The Demoness? What you have done is a grave offense to one that can change the world once the Third Child is out of the way."

"Rei, you need to get away from that woman. She's not to be trusted or taken likely. Get away from her and return to your apartment."

"I'm afraid I can't follow that order, sir. The reason is simple: The Demoness offered me a proposition…and I've accepted."

"Rei…you don't know what you're doing."

"I do, and it's only because you made it so."

The call disconnected and Gendo couldn't believe this.

"What happened?" Fuyutsuki asked him.

"The Demoness has taken the First Child," he stated simply. "She will contact us an hour from now."

"The Demoness…has Rei hostage?" Yui asked.

"No. Rei has joined her."

-x-

"…Shinji?" Ritsuko gasped, seeing the immortal boy that had been shot four times (three of which actually hit him) return to the base, dressed in his plugsuit. "You're back."

"I just want to make sure what happened yesterday didn't affect my ability to synchronize with Unit-01," he explained to her. "Though, I was more upset about the damage that man caused my bike. It's not easy to be concerned about myself right now."

 _More angry about his bike, not himself? That's crazy._

But she decided to make nothing of it and led him to the test plugs. Whenever the last Angel decided to show up, they needed a pilot able to use the Eva without a handicap caused by incidents. However, Ritsuko had to consider the chances of an immortal child being unable to pilot the Eva after being injured by their megalomaniacal father were very slim, and with his higher-than-tolerable synchronization, there was room for doubt of it decreasing.

Shinji, on the other hand, just wanted to make sure he was still in good shape for when he did face the last Angel. He didn't have any faith in actually using the Eva to deal with the last threat to mankind beyond The Demoness; with other memories of the past belonging to the primordial Shinji Ikari, the immortal child didn't want to echo such actions that had damaged the original individual's very soul.

-x-

Manipulating the hotel staff to clean up the bloody mess that she made with killing the guy that removed her choker from her neck and disposing of the body without any memory of what happened, The Demoness had time to plan her next move. In her hotel suite, she began to pack her things in preparation for leaving the building; with the loss of her choker, she intended to relocate herself to a different dwelling that was less luxurious and more simple.

"Is the choker important to you?" Rei asked her, sitting in a chair by the window as the woman picked up her sword and placed it in a traveling tube.

"It is to me," she answered the girl. "It has no monetary value that would be favorable or payable, but even if a price tag did exist for it, its very value is only to me. It was made for me alone to wear; therefore, it is very sentimental in who gifted it to me."

Rei nodded in the positive, understanding that and not needing to question it any further.

"He will likely keep it in his office in his desk," she told her.

"Well, he can either return it willingly…or I can take it from him as he lay suffering. It's time to contact NERV and reveal how I intend to deal with them."

The Demoness laid back on the bed and Rei felt her consciousness envelop the entire room.

-x-

"Well, Shinji, you'll be pleased to know that your synchronization hasn't been affected by what happened yesterday," Ritsuko informed Shinji through the intercom. "You'll still king of the mountain."

"Thank, Dr. Akagi," he responded, grateful that his synchronization with the Eva was unaffected. "How high is it this time?"

That was something Ritsuko was bothered by. It wasn't that his current score had dropped by a small amount in the last few hours. No, it was the total opposite; his score had increased further.

"Would you believe me if I told you it was now close to three-thousand?" She asked him.

"I would have to ask by how close, exactly," he responded. "By twenty? Thirty? Two-hundred? I would need the exact total."

"You're one-hundred points away from three-thousand."

"Now, that's impressive. I hope to face the final Angel with certainty."

 _How can he be so determined that he'll face the last Angel when we're not certain if it'll even show up?_

 _Attention, NERV,_ she heard a female voice that sent a chill down her spine. _Don't bother with trying to ignore me. You can't shut me out. In case you haven't heard of me or were confused with the nuclear missile fiasco that I caused the world, I am the one called The Demoness. The Demoness, meaning "The Devil incarnated within a woman". Other translations include "Devil Woman", "Devil's Mistress" and "Lady Devil". This is my face._

The faux-blond woman then received a mental projection of what the woman looked like, seeing The Demoness in all her awe and mystery: A mix-breed woman that stood six feet in height, long, burgundy hair tied in a ponytail, green eyes that were the darkest and most coldest ever. If anything, Ritsuko was more frightened by her, and this was the first time she had seen her face.

Within the plug, Shinji finally understood why the dark feeling he felt around NERV was so off-putting in his mind; it was because it was The Demoness', only less than what she gave off.

"I'm getting out of the plug now," he told Ritsuko, and ejected the plug.

Meanwhile, in Central Dogma, the staff were put off by the mental image they all received of The Demoness, wondering what she was up to.

 _The reason I'm contacting you, along with reaching out to every other mind on the planet, every man, woman and child, regardless of their culture and language, is because one of you has offended me in the worst way imaginable. Because one of you has violated me in body, mind and soul_ _…_ _and I demand closure and justice for this act of arrogance against me. Wouldn't you agree with me_ _…_ _Gendo Rokubungi-Ikari, the so-called leader of the NERV paramilitary agency?_ Everyone in Central Dogma all heard her voice, and turned to look up at Gendo, who seemed unfazed by the communication. _It was you who offended me. It was you who violated me. And now, I will violate you, piece by painful piece._

"What the Hell is going on here?!" A man demanded below.

"What is she talking about?" A woman added.

"What the Hell did you do to her?" Another woman requested.

 _You see, people, he had me attacked in the dead of night, last night, only to steal something very dear to my heart, something I will go to extremes to reclaim, one way or another, even if it means I must shed innocent blood,_ The Demoness resumed. _But I don't want to seem completely vindictive. However, I will not show complete weakness in my restraint. Gendo Rokubungi-Ikari, as the Japanese once believed that the decision of a samurai should be made within the space of seven breaths, I shall give you seven days to rectify your arrogant act against me and return what you stole, but for each day that you refuse, I will force twenty random souls into comas. It won't matter who they are. They can be police officers, wanted criminals, the cherished elderly, teachers, your friends, your family members, your wife and even your former mistress. They'll all be the same to me: Collateral that I will put on you. And after the seventh day, all bets will be off for what I do next. The truth to many things will come to light. And to those of NERV, I do this only because my hand has been forced_ _…_ _and if you feel pressured to do something to avoid an insufferable fate, feel free to walk away or persuade the bastard to return what he stole from me. I wouldn't want to share with the world certain secrets that you keep from others, but I will. Nothing is hidden from me now and hasn't been for days since Arael, the Angel of Birds, was ended by me. If necessary, I will reveal all to the world. I will tell you, all of you, the very things you don't know or don't want to know about others, for better or for worse. I can tell you which of your friends is sleeping with how many men or women around you, which members of the global police force are dirty and in bed with the criminal element, what people of power have planned for your nations. I'll even tell you who killed Tupac and how to cure HIV because the governments of the world won't share their secrets with you because they care only for their bottom line. Again, Gendo, you have only seven days to rectify your mistake. Twenty random souls a day for your refusal. Their blood will be on your hands. Good day to the rest of the people of the world._

The telepathic communication ended, and the nightmare began.

"I quit!" A man yelled, getting up from his console, throwing his headphones down. "This is insane! You (he pointed to Gendo from below)! You crossed a line! You crossed a serious line! Fix this!"

He vacated the chamber, followed by at least eighteen other men and women.

"Ikari," went Fuyutsuki, angry over this revelation, "what the Hell did you do?"

"Gendo," went Takeru, bothered by this turn of events, "what have you done?"

-x-

The Demoness returned to consciousness and got up in her hotel bed, seeing Rei still sitting in the chair by the window.

"Do you believe he will rectify his act against you?" She asked the immortal woman.

"For his sake, he'd better," The Demoness explained. "If he doesn't, things will get worse for him and any that follow him."

"What now?"

"For now, return to your apartment. I shall contact you within a day…and we'll begin your reconditioning from who you were to who you should be."

The albino nodded and got up, followed by The Demoness, who grabbed her bag and sword tube case.

"Do you despise the Third Child?" She asked her.

"No," she answered, "I don't despise him. He's an enemy, but he didn't choose to be one. The Game creates victims as it creates threats. I was the first victim…and he will be the last victim. It's actually almost tragic irony. The oldest of the immortal against the youngest of the immortals. It would be easy if I could just spare him from his fate…but some things just aren't meant to be."

-x-

Putting the choker in his desk where it would be safe from the wrong hands, Gendo ignored the advice of everyone that insisted that he do the right thing and return whatever it was he took from this woman before they suffered because of him.

"You pissed her off," went Shinji as he barged right into the office, walking past his mother and the sub-commander. "You just had to go and piss her off, didn't you? What, do you have a constant need to try and hurt others to see if they can be hurt? This is worse than what you did to me yesterday."

"You will watch your tone in here," Gendo told him.

"Cut the bullshit," he retorted. "Whatever you took from The Demoness, you'd best return it and make amends with her while you still can. You do not want to drag this out with someone like her. Not with someone that can make you suffer just as much as you make others around you suffer."

"And what would you know about suffering?"

"I know enough about suffering to know that it's a poisonous miasma that's hard to escape from. Don't think you can control the actions of an immortal when you can't predict what they'll do next. If she says she can take out twenty people at random, it won't matter who they are. Whatever it is you think you can have won't matter if you end up losing someone you care about to her. And I thought my punishment towards you and Mother was enough to curb your atrocious behavior."

"Punishment? What exactly have you done to punish me?"

"Everything I know I could do to stop you. Everything I didn't think was within my power to do to stop you. The aftermath of the Fourth Angel? Mother's return? Her inability to sync with the Eva? The destruction of Adam and Lilith? I never thought I could do anything about any of those situations, but I managed to change things and stop you. Both of you."

"You mean, you made it so that Third Impact can't be achieved, no matter who desires it?" Fuyutsuki asked him.

"Yes. Third Impact. The Human Instrumentality Project. The very end of the world. I did whatever I could to prevent each of you, any that wanted to alter the world that exists today, now, from carrying out whatever agenda you had. You might think you were trying to save the world, but I know differently, and that's not saving anyone. It's just a clever way to hurt people and take away their right to decide how they want to live out their lives."

"But, Shinji…" Yui uttered. "It was meant to be a bright future for everyone."

"Not when you try to have me decide everything based off some predestined bull. Nobody, not even you, Mother, should try and force a fate so unforgivable on someone else just because you think they'll make the right choice. I couldn't and I wouldn't do such a thing to anyone, no matter what you think."

Yui sighed and stated that Gendo stole The Demoness' choker and had it in his desk.

"Yui!" Gendo hushed.

"Are you that insane?!" Shinji yelled. "You need to return that to her. I don't want to imagine her actually coming down here and taking it back through force. You don't know what else she's capable of besides intimidation and telepathic communication and mind control."

"You don't seem to know what else she's capable of, either, boy."

"You're right, I don't know, and that's what makes her all the more dangerous."

"All the more reason for you to be there to kill her if she does come down here."

Shinji went wide-eyed. Did his father want him to kill The Demoness if she decided to invade the base? Was that the reason he had her attacked and her choker stolen?

"No," he told him. "I'm not going to do that."

"Shinji," Yui spoke, but the boy raised his left hand to silence her.

"I'm not the one The Demoness has beef with at the moment. I'm not her priority…and she's not my problem. You're the one that attacked and stole from her, so that makes her your problem, Father. You can either fix your mistake…or you can suffer the consequences for your unwillingness to do the right thing. Either way, it's your own fault. You created a situation you need to get yourself out of before it's too late. Don't expect me or anyone else to save your ass."

He then turned to leave.

"Do you honestly expect your father to undo his mistake?" Fuyutsuki asked him.

"It's his life," Shinji told him. "Everyone should be held responsible for their own decisions."

Yui looked at Gendo…and then sighed as she walked out of the office.

-x-

The drive back home was unsettling for the three. The streets were empty, making the city seem like a ghost town now, and the people were all indoors.

"Do you think we should go back to Osaka?" Takuya suggested.

"No, it wouldn't make any difference," Shinji answered him.

"The Demoness broadcast her telepathic communication across the world," Akira stated, looking out the passenger window. "If we could hear in the Geo-Front over a mile underground, we could've heard her hundreds of miles away in Osaka."

"She has the entire world unhinged… What the Hell was Gendo thinking? Who the Hell does he think he is?"

"An arrogant and bitter man that hates himself and the whole world. Maybe the abandonment of his father when he discovered he was immortal did have some bitter impact on his youth, but maybe he's just a black sheep that's shown his true colors in front of us."

"He thought he could change the world to suit his desires," said Shinji, "but I stopped him dead in his pursuit…and I told him straight up that he was going nowhere with such desires."

"How upset with you do you think he is?" Takuya asked him.

"Oh, I think he'd be content with me dead…or just out of his life."

"And how did it make you feel, telling him all of that?" Akira asked.

"I felt like I had proven myself having done more with my small life than he's done with his whole life. Sure, he's in charge of a paramilitary agency, but…as a person, he hasn't made much of any impact on others that's remotely positive. Has he made anyone smile just for the sake of smiling? Can he give good advice or impart words of wisdom to those in need of it?"

"Well said, Shinji," praised Takuya, turning the Prius left on the road. "Hey, I know it's been three years since I last asked you, but how has your little…internal sojourn progressed in the last few days?"

That question startled Shinji a little. It had been so long since Akira had taught him a skill that she learned during her immortal years that he had totally forgotten why he had learned to master it to begin with…and why it was necessary for him to do so when he had ample time each day.

"It's an internal struggle, but one I face each day on a second layer of my existence, Takuya," he answered him. "I was doing it even when I wasn't thinking about anything."

"That's the whole point of meditation, Shinji," Akira reminded him. "By following such a method, you reduce your instability and stay clear-headed."

"You learned to do so after your Dark Quickening and resolved the matter so that the chances of it ever happening again are slim."

"Still, I had to worry if four years was enough for you to do what took Akira centuries to pull off," Takuya expressed.

"I had to put more effort in my own method, but even the ample time I've had since the Angel Quickenings had been sufficient."

"That's good to hear, Shinji."

-x-

"…How do you care to explain this situation you've caused, Ikari?!" SEELE 01 demanded in the next meeting with the council.

"An unimportant woman looking to install fear," Gendo expressed.

"And she's doing a damn good job of it!" SEELE 07 yelled. "The whole world knows who she is and believe her threat to have a credible impact if she carries it out!"

"What did you steal from her that she wants back?" SEELE 11 demanded.

"I've stolen nothing from this delusional woman," he lied to them.

"I don't believe you, Ikari," said SEELE 04 to him. "Whatever it is you took from her, return it to her before she decides to expose to the world something we don't want them to know about!"

"There's nothing to return."

"Don't try our patience, Ikari," SEELE 01 warned him. "She only gave you seven days to rectify your problem, after which there may be no negotiating with her."

"Is SEELE afraid of this woman? This…Devil's Mistress?"

""Ikari…don't tempt us to replace you with someone else to run NERV…because we can," went SEELE 09 to Gendo, threatening him, "and they'll give us the reassurances we require. Resolve the matter with The Demoness…while you still have the time to resolve it."

"This meeting is adjourned," SEELE 01, and the holographic monoliths disappeared, leaving Gendo alone, unfazed by his new orders…which he wasn't going to obey.

 _I won't be bullied by some woman,_ he thought.

-x-

The night air over the city was thick with silence, something that bothered Shinji as he looked down at the streets around the apartment building, seeing not a soul trying to get out onto the street and do what they normally did. If they were as afraid of The Demoness as he was right now, they'd probably stay indoors for as long as possible until the situation with her was resolved. But if Shinji knew his father enough to despise him, then he knew the situation wouldn't be resolved because Gendo was just not the understanding type. There was no hope of the man ever dealing with the situation properly and professionally.

"The news is reporting that everyone is currently staying indoors out of fear," he heard Akira behind him on the rooftop.

"What about anyone we know?" He asked her.

"Jose is upset that he can't find an all-night bar to get one drink and Quentin has to watch Clyde because she's scared The Demoness might hurt her if she goes to sleep."

"I called Toji, and he's doing the same with his sister. Kensuke's trying to forget about the telepathic broadcast by reading up on vehicles and weapons used by the Navy and Marines and Hikari's trying to keep her sisters and father calm at her place, but it's not easy for the middle child of her family."

"She's the middle child? Shouldn't her eldest sister be the one to take charge during situations like this? Why is she the one needing to be the peacekeeper?"

"Her eldest sister, Kodama, is worried that The Demoness will pay them a visit and has to keep their youngest sister, Nozomi, from freaking out."

"Okay, I know it's not my place to question, but who names their children after trains?"

"Apparently, the Horaki family. Everyone names their kids after something or someone. People are afraid. Everyone's afraid."

Ring! Shinji's iPhone rang and he looked at the screen, seeing that it was Toji calling.

"Hey," he greeted the jock.

"Yo, Shinji, I just wanted to know something because Hikari was too afraid to ask you," Toji explained, "but just what did your old man take from The Demoness that she wants back so much?"

"That jerk went and took the choker she wears around her neck, and she's pissed about it."

"Be honest, man, but your father has absolutely no intention of returning it to her at all, does he?"

"If I know him enough to hate him, then, yes, he has no intention of returning it to her."

"Shinji, man, I probably wouldn't ask you or anyone else to do what I'm about to ask you, but if you gotta do what that man won't, please, please, do what you must to settle the matter with him and The Demoness before things escalate. I trust you to do what you can."

"The way things are likely to go, I may have to do what he won't do."

-x-

"…This choker's made of a metal unlike anything we've ever seen before," said Ritsuko to Gendo, having the item put through a small number of tests to determine its value.

"Some sort of metal not known to mankind?" He questioned.

"It might be related to a metal mentioned in ancient times as orichalcum. Maybe even the very metal itself, for that matter."

"Orichalcum? As in the fabled alloy of Atlantis?"

"It's possible. If so, that would make this choker thousands, if not tens of thousands, of years old. This could also mean that this woman is likely older."

"Any estimation on how old?"

"Anywhere from between ten-thousand to maybe fifteen-thousand years. Of course, that's assuming that this woman's even that old."

"And these…engravings etched in some of the twists of the metal?"

"They're written in a mixture of ten different languages that translate into something…very romantic. It translates to, _'For the love of my life, and may we both soar towards the heart of the universe together'_. It's just a theory, but it seems as though The Demoness' choker was actually a gift to her from a boyfriend from the same time period as her."

If it was so, then Gendo had crossed some very deep, personal lines that were certain to infuriate The Demoness further.

"Can this choker be destroyed?" He asked her.

"This is where I need to put my foot down and refuse the suggestion to try," the faux-blond woman told him. "If this choker is that valuable to The Demoness, I do not want to get on her bad side."

-x-

It was a small motel, but it would suffice for The Demoness, who wanted to be as close towards the Geo-Front as possible for when she needed to go to extremes and punish Gendo further. And the manager was…most cooperative when she invaded the mental boundaries of his mind and threatened to out him to the world for his sins against others if he didn't supply her with a room.

 _Sick fiend,_ she thought, deciding that this manager could be one of the twenty random lives she would attack mentally if Gendo failed to return her choker tomorrow. _The afternoon tomorrow will decide if he tries to rectify_ _…_ _or invites more hurt._

-x-

Schools were canceled for the day, supermarket activity was minor, the police were patrolling the streets on the lookout for any hints of foul play, and NERV was on alert for the last Angel. But when the afternoon hours of the new day turned to the evening hours, the world received the first wave of attacks by The Demoness in response to Gendo's refusal to return what he had taken from her.

"Aaaahh!" One of the female personnel of NERV shrieked, finding ten other personnel members laying on the floor under a message smeared on the walls in red paint.

" _TEN IN NERV, FIVE IN GERMANY, FIVE IN CHINA. TONIGHT, I START TELLING PEOPLE THINGS TO RATTLE THE CAGES. YOU HAVE SIX DAYS LEFT, GENDO."_ The message read; The Demoness must've took control of these people in order to leave the message and then rendered them comatose after having no further need of them.

"This woman's not playing around," said Misato, tasked with controlling the situation (or rather, she was just another scapegoat for Gendo).

Ring! Her phone, and she picked up.

"Katsuragi," she greeted to whoever was calling.

"Katsuragi, it's Kaji," the voice of her ex over in Germany responded.

"Of all the… Unless you have a good reason for calling, I'm hanging up on you…"

"Misato, that woman, that…that broad that says her name means she's the Devil or whatever, she put Asuka in a coma!" Kaji sounded like he was really hurt by whatever happened over there. "She was just talking to me when she just dropped to the floor. What the Hell did that man steal from her that she wants back so much?"

"I don't know, but whatever it is, it must be either sentimental or just something that could help her hurt his kid," she told him.

"She's after the Third Child?"

"Trust me, I can barely understand it myself, but she's not some sort of assassin. Nobody's hired this woman to kill him; she's just…after him."

"Well, the people over here are furious. They fear any attack on German soil will be a sign that someone knows they're not protected against any assault on them."

-x-

"…I figure I'd find you here, Takeru," went Shinji to his paternal grandfather, seeing the former immortal man sitting on the floor within the Suzaku temple.

"After what happened yesterday, I couldn't be there at NERV any longer than I was," he explained his reason for being at the temple. "Your father, my son, caused twenty people to become comatose victims…and he doesn't feel like he's done anything wrong when he has. He could fix this if he just returned her choker, because she's gonna do it again and again until he either does…or she realizes that she needs to be more direct. I came to this temple to seek forgiveness and absolution because I've accepted that I've failed Gendo, regardless of whether I became immortal by accident or gave up immortality to be free of eternity. Forty years is too long to reach out to anyone."

Shinji came over and sat beside him on his left.

"You did only what you thought you had to in order to keep your family safe from anyone that might've come for your head. I don't condemn you for doing what you thought was the best choice you could make. You regretted it ever since you found out how he turned out. I forgive you for thinking you failed him. I admit to hating my father for his past sins. I confess to hating my parents for trying to change the world in a way that wasn't good. I didn't want to risk the world I knew being destroyed because of whatever it was they believed should have been done, so I took my own precautions in preventing them from carrying out their separate agendas. I took control of the situation from them the instant I came to Tokyo-3, I returned my mother to her physical body and made it so that she could never sync with any Eva again, protected as many people as possible, including my friends, from the Angels, Adam's children, and disposed of Lilith so that nobody would be harmed by her. In the process of disposing Adam and Lilith, I learned things that were beyond comprehension for any normal mind to take. I saw the Earth in its primordial stages, Adam, meant to be the original inheritor of the planet, usurped by Lilith by accident, life as we know starting out from ooze to cells to insects and dinosaurs… I saw people wanting to violate sacred grounds possessed by the gods themselves in order to remove their limitations as people…and was further reminded of why people need to remain as they are, for better or worse."

"Why must we remain as we are?"

"We're still young. We think ourselves above others, that we're the center of the universe…when we're not even close to the center. We're on the outer rim, barely on the edge. There's a whole universe beyond our reach that would take us millions of generations to explore. My mother wanted to use the Eva to be eternal evidence that the human race existed, even though it meant being alone forever. Nobody deserves to be alone forever, not even to serve as some sort of testament that doesn't even matter, anymore. We shouldn't concern ourselves with how we should be remembered by the universe because we're just a small part of it. We should be concerned about where we're going to be tomorrow and who we're going to be doing things with, living for ourselves and who we want to live because they either inspired us, motivated us to keep going, no matter what, or because we feel like something or someone is worth living for until we find out whether they're worth living for or not and we simply move on."

"But it's hard to continue living when you feel like you have nothing left."

"If I were to use the power of the Prize to help people, would you accept help from me? I'd be willing to get you back on your feet and help you with whatever it is."

"Why would you want to help me?"

"Because…you're family, too. You might've failed your son…but you haven't failed me. You're worth saving and returning to whatever life you had."

"Thank you, Shinji."

They looked at the painted mural of the bird of fire in front of them, finding comfort in the way the mythological creature was depicted rising from the ashes of its previous life and spreading its mighty wings to live its new life.

"Is our fate etched in stone, Shinji?" He asked the boy.

"No," he answered. "There's no such thing as any fate or destiny being etched in stone. We make our own fates, decide our own destinies. And like the avian of flames, we can rise from our ashes and live again, both metaphorically…and literally…so long as we ourselves choose to, so long as we ourselves want to for ourselves and not because others expect us to."

-x-

Nobody would be able to keep her out of their heads when she decided to tell them things that they knew nothing about tonight. Even as she was trying to prepare dinner, Akira worried over whatever it was The Demoness was going share with them, whether they wanted to know or not.

The sound of the door opening and closing made her aware that someone had entered the apartment.

"Akira, Takuya," she heard Shinji's voice, and the scuffling of some shoes. "I'm home. I know it's unexpected, but I brought along Takeru for dinner."

Akira turned from the kitchen counter and looked at the hallway leading to the front door, where Shinji slowly walked in, followed by Takeru.

"Hello," Takeru greeted, bowing his head to her. "If it's any consolation…you're not the only one disappointed with Gendo's choice."

"It's a poor consolation, Takeru," she told him. "Fortunately, I was cooking a big meal because I was stressed out. It never hurts to have a guest."

"I've sworn off alcohol. It no longer tastes so good."

"That stuff just numbs emotional pain and reduces inhibitions," said Takuya as he stepped out of the living room. "It also makes people sore losers."

"Big losers," added Shinji.

 _I'm very upset with the lack of morality that you took today, Gendo,_ they heard The Demoness, apparently following the Japanese time. _All I asked of you was that you return what you took from me. Apparently, you demonstrate persistence and refusal to accept responsibility for your own choices. You even let twenty people, including a thirteen-year-old German girl with ties to your agency, end up comatose for you. Now, I shall share with the people things that will cause either fear, disgust, or maybe resentment towards others for the next hour, starting with one of your depraved bits of history._

"Well, that's just lovely," said Takeru, half-heartedly. "I wonder what skeletons he's got in his closet?"

 _Shortly after his wife, Yui Ikari, faked her own death in a top-secret project gone wrong for NERV's previous incarnation, GEHIRN, Gendo Rokubungi-Ikari committed a doubting taboo on his commitment to her,_ The Demoness revealed, _by having sexual relations with the late Naoko Akagi, the creator of the MAGI supercomputer series…and later her daughter, Ritsuko Akagi, the head of Project "E", Project Evangelion, the very same project that he forced his only son, Shinji Ikari, to become part of for the sake of fulfilling a grand scheme of his to eliminate all human beings. A scheme that was ended before it could even take root and spread like a weed in a garden by his son, who despises the man he's become. That's right, people. Gendo Rokubungi-Ikari…is a heartless, depraved, megalomaniacal sex fiend with no qualms about sleeping with two women that were related to one another. It's sickening and makes you wonder how any woman would sacrifice her dignity to get where they want to be in life._

"Son of a bitch," went Shinji, wishing he could undo what he heard about his father. "Now I can't get that depraved image out of my head."

"I don't know what's worse," added Takeru, "the fact that he cheated on his wife…or the fact that he had two different affairs with two women from the same family."

"People are going to be out for blood," Takuya told them.

 _Now, here's something that will please the people of the United States,_ The Demoness continued. _I'm_ _going to tell you who killed Tupac and which man you shouldn't support to be the next President because he's not worth the money he makes from his shady dealings._

Her telepathic broadcast went on and on for the next fifty-three minutes, with one hidden secret after another, including the revelation of there being cures to cancer and AIDS, that the world had more honest police than dirty police, and that she named thirty of them in New Jersey and New York, and how the cost of living was going to be raised drastically by the governments of the world to get rid of the lower class of people and put them on the streets. When it ended with the promise of more if Gendo continued to persist, Shinji felt like he was going to get weird looks from people that knew of his parents, just because of his father's sins.

"And I thought I put my old man down good," he told them as they sat at the table.

"She didn't put him down, Shinji, she just dug his grave and laid out the tools to cut him up and dump the pieces in," Takeru expressed. "Whatever any of us could do to him or have even thought about doing to him, she made sure she did something…much worse."

"I pray she doesn't divulge any secrets about us," stated Akira, picking up her chopsticks. "Some things about me are better left untold."

"Please, Akira, you're the nicest woman of your generation…even though, technically, you're the only woman of your generation alive."

"I once tazed Akira by accident," Takuya confessed. "I was sleepwalking."

"You were upset because you got hurt on the job," Shinji stated, "and you were on some bad medication during your recovery."

Takeru felt ease being with these three. It was, even though there was a situation that involved one of them, they couldn't let it get them down.

 _Just like old times,_ he thought, thinking back to the last time he had dinner with his family.

-x-

Rei Ayanami wasn't upset to know that Commander Ikari had been outed by The Demoness. If anything, it was quite…amusing to know that he had been exposed a little. Even as she laid in her bed and slept through the night, the albino girl wondered what else The Demoness would reveal to the world if Commander Ikari refused to return her choker to her.

-x-

Swing! The Demoness swung her sword in the cold air on the motel rooftop, venting her frustration over another day deprived of her choker.

"I've got no strings to hold me down," she sang to herself. "I had strings… But now I'm free… I'm not tied up to anyone…"

And then, just for a moment, if anyone was even looking for her, the illusion of large, white wings appeared on her back…and then disappeared from sight.

"I had wings…but they were the angel in me…not The Demoness that I am…and I am The Demoness. I am the Devil incarnated within a woman…and I will unleash Hell upon my enemies."

To be continued…

A/N: Well, now the world knows some things that some people wanted to keep buried, but how long can they put up with such knowledge that they can't put a lid on?


	20. Meeting you, fighting you, saving you

Creation began on 03-16-18

Creation ended on 04-03-18

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Immortal Ikari: Meeting you, fighting you, saving you

NERV was facing ridicule on all sides because of Gendo's refusal to return what he stole from The Demoness, and it was said woman who was divulging many secrets by the day, hours after she forces twenty random people to become comatose…and only after three days, too, bringing the number of victims to sixty. Not even SEELE was willing to tolerate his behavior, since it was clear that some of NERV's secrets The Demoness was exposing involved him out of spite, including his sexual deviancy.

"Ikari, this has gone on far enough," said SEELE 01 warned Gendo during the next meeting, with three SEELE members fewer than before. "We don't want this woman telling the world any more secrets they have no right to know about! And, apparently, you're unwilling to resolve this issue you caused with her! Therefore, we're relieving you of your command and sending in someone who will resolve the issue with the least amount of casualties. Also, we're sending in a new pilot. With the revelation that the First Child has abandoned NERV in favor of The Demoness, you're only left with the Third Child, with whom you're also at odds with, and who has put our goals out to pasture! Your whole family's unhinged and can't be trusted!"

Gendo was fuming. Just because he refused to return the damn choker, he was being fired? Well, even if his replacement assumed control, he wasn't going to simply give up the pathetic item just because some immortal bitch wanted it back.

Meanwhile, Yui and Ritsuko were getting their own ridicule from the personnel that remained at NERV HQ. The faux-blond was suspected of still having an affair with Gendo, even though that hadn't been going on since his wife returned, found some letters and emails that called her a few choice words, ranging from "the Boss' Mistress", "slut", "you're no better than your mother" among other things, and her protégé, Maya Ibuki, had a hard time just looking at her after learning about her personal relationship with Gendo, feeling like she had been betrayed or something (and she didn't want to go there at all). And Yui, the woman was having a harder time just being in the same room as her husband; the more looks of disgust she got from the people, the more she felt pressured to react in a bad way.

"Twenty more people got comatose today," she heard Fuyutsuki say to her in the hallway on the fourth day. "I'm beginning to suspect that only half of them are actually random. Some of these people are ones affiliated with NERV and the UN. A few doctors, a couple of elderly individuals, even three children. That's as random as it gets right now."

"If I could keep him distracted, could you sneak into his office and get the choker?" She asked him. "If he won't do it, someone else has to."

"Eight people actually tried to do that. He removed the choker from his desk and hid it somewhere else. He's going to get us all assaulted by this woman simply because he won't return it to her."

"You think you have it bad down here?" They both turned around and looked down at Shinji, who seemed annoyed by some things. "The school's shut down, my friends are scared to death by who The Demoness can put into a coma the next time she chooses to pick a new victim, and the streets are getting ready for a riot because of that idiot. I'm all ready to do my misdeeds that inspired the concept of asking for forgiveness rather than for permission because that's what I'm going to need to do after I'm through with my old man. I won't hold back because he's my father or because you (he points at Yui) love him. I will…devastate him. Break his fingers, knock his teeth out, stomp his back…just to get the choker and return it to The Demoness myself…because I have people I want to protect from her."

"Shinji, if you try to assault him, he'll likely throw you in a holding cell," Yui warned him.

"Let him try, then," Shinji responded, already dead set on what he aimed to do. "He's already incompetent at doing a simple request. And if the last Angel arrives…I'll face it without the Eva if I have to."

The boy then walked past them, going to his father's office.

"I don't like this," Fuyutsuki sighed.

"I don't know whether to praise him or scold him," Yui confessed.

"He probably doesn't care either way."

-x-

Shinji stood in front of his father's door, sighed, and then raised his hands up, glowing the pinkish-red that the Fourth Angel possessed.

"I seriously hate to gamble," he muttered, summoning his energy blades from his hands.

SLICE! SLASH! He cut the door down and let himself inside his father's office.

Gendo, looking annoyed rather than surprised, sat at his desk as the boy walked over.

"You… You ruined everything," he told Shinji.

"And you're pissing people off, including The Demoness, your father, your wife, your second mistress…and I," the boy retorted, and then sliced the desk in two. "Do you not see how your actions have led to severe repercussions? Not that I don't mind the world now knowing how to cure STDs and learning the identity of who killed Tupac and getting him justice, or even discovering the identities of some crooked police with the promise of learning more on who else is abusing the badge, but I doubt that some of her comatose victims are just random choices. What if she decides her next twenty victims should include your wife, just to show you that nobody is safe from her?"

"Except people like you, who she can't attack like this."

Shinji nodded in the negative as he then raised his arms up…and sliced the desk in half.

"I'm not up to listening to a man who isn't even worthy of a Father of the Year Award," he told Gendo, raising his left energy blade up and leaving a small singe on his shirt. "Just hand over The Demoness' choker…and I'll return it to her and see if her comatose victims will be revived."

"I'm not handing over that antique necklace to you or that old hag."

"Do you really want to risk provoking her further?!"

"The more she's provoked, the more likely she is to make poor decisions."

"Wrong."

Shinji ceased the energy blades…and turned to the right side of the desk on his father's side and tossed it over, finding nothing within the large drawer that had been damaged.

"You're impossible right now," he told his father, realizing that he hid the choker elsewhere. "Just because you think you've lost everything your twisted heart desires, you gotta go and take things from others and try to throw them off their game. Your arrogance and depravity will be your undoing, old man, when you find yourself in the grip of a woman you can't reason with because you crossed the line."

And then, he turned and walked away.

"Get back here, boy!" Gendo ordered him.

"You're gonna risk the lives of everyone down here and across the planet with your stupidity."

"My stupidity?! What about your stupidity?! Your arrogance?! Because of you, we're at a virtual dead-end! You couldn't see the big picture! You wouldn't see the big picture!"

Shinji stopped at the door, thought about it all over again, and sighed.

"If you don't like the way the world is, the way people like you maimed it when you decided to play God, then you shouldn't have made the choice to maim it. If you don't like the people that live in the world, then you should just become a reclusive hermit somewhere where isolation is your luxury…because none of this is about you. And if you hate me so much…then you shouldn't have had me all those years ago when you and your wife got married."

The boy vacated the office.

-x-

Rei was impressed by what The Demoness secretly possessed on her person most of the time. This woman was clearly from an era where mortal men and women had the power of the gods in the form of science and technology that was far superior to the conventional versions that existed today…and how she acquired other things over the ages to pass time. Somehow, The Demoness had come into possession of various medical resources that could eliminate all trace of disease and genetic damage in the body, possibly through the same way she obtained her other possessions, like the Pyramids and Great Sphinx of Giza or the wreckage of the Titanic.

"How do you feel now that you no longer need the medication NERV gave you when you were genetically unstable?" The Demoness asked her, standing in front of her as she emerged from the large pool that housed a greenish water that was lukewarm.

Looking at her hands, still pale, but filled with a newfound strength that was alien to her before, and looked up at the woman before responding, "I feel good. Thank you."

Behind her was a massive creature that resembled the bulldog-sized, rabbit-like creature with dragon wings for ears, looking rather docile, about the size of a one-story building or so.

She raised her left hand and petted its large head, earning a large purr from it.

Rei found it odd for The Demoness to have any number of creatures unlike any outside of this small pocket dimension she used to house all her things. It was even more unusual to see the immortal woman demonstrating affection towards other creatures.

"When the civilization I once called my home fell from grace at the corrupt minds of those that violated my life, as I made the choice to abandon it to its fate, I found my chimeric companion pinned under debris, unable to escape. Even after my first Quickening and immortality, he still remembered me and was looking for me. Even after I lost the love of my life, there were some individuals that were still important to me that could still be saved. I scavenged for everything I could use, anything that could help me get by over the years, and found many things that could help me, my friends, my followers and my chimeras for generations to come; my intellectual capacities were augmented by the immortal energies that surged through me, so I had to make sure I knew everything about everything I took."

Rei looked around them, and for miles and miles were piles of objects that were laid out within the vast realm of darkness that did nothing to obscure any of it. She could see several buildings, statues, even castles from various points in history. It would have left any mind curious as to why The Demoness would want any of these material things.

"Now that you've been reconditioned, Ms. Ayanami," The Demoness said, "go and play. Have some fun. Test out your body's limits and explore what you're capable of doing, what you're capable…of achieving."

-x-

"…So, it wasn't in his desk at all?" Akira asked Shinji as they walked on the path in the park that afternoon.

"That's right. That man's got issues and we've got problems." Shinji answered her, holding his head with his right hand. "He should know that The Demoness isn't playing games with anyone, and she's gonna reveal more disturbing secrets tonight and tomorrow will have another batch of victims that he won't bat an eyelash for. I'm starting to wonder if she'll put my mother into a coma just to prove that she can."

"If she does, it might strike serious nerves in him to make him realize that this woman is playing a fatalistic game with him…and she's playing for keeps."

"He thinks she'll make reckless decisions the longer she's deprived of her choker, but it's only going to make other people less concerned with coming after him and taking him out."

Shinji then jumped onto a bench and high to grab the light of a lamppost, hanging from it like a monkey in front of his grandmother.

"The police are going to be the first to go after him," she informed him, sitting on the bench, "without the rule of law to hold them back from crossing the line."

Shinji let go of the streetlight and slammed onto the ground beside the bench and Akira.

"Just tell me the truth, though," he requested. "Well, not the truth, but your honest opinion. The Demoness… Do you think she'll hurt anyone that we know as a consequence to what that jerk has done to her?"

"Since it seems that you and former immortals are protected against this power she received from the Angel of Birds, it's a possibility," she suggested, "but we won't know until after she does so to people we know. I pray she doesn't, though."

"Likewise. I'd go to extremes to protect those that matter to me."

Suddenly, Shinji felt a disturbing presence from nearby…and felt the need to unsheathe his tanto.

"Shinji?" Akira questioned, worried.

"I think he's finally shown up," he explained cryptically. _Kaworu Nagisa_ _…_ _Tabris_ _…_ _Either way, I have to be able to walk away from any encounter with you free of nightmares._

He then raised the blade and turned towards a tree, feeling the presence of the last threat to mankind from the Angels was most strongest coming from behind it.

"Cease your hiding, because I know you're there!" He demanded, approaching the tree. "Don't do something we'll both regret."

Akira watched as a young boy stepped out from behind the tree…and shuddered at the sight of him because he was exactly as Shinji had described him. Around fourteen or fifteen years of age, pale skin, gray hair and red eyes; he was like a warped mirror echoing Rei Ayanami in a sense.

"Hello, there," the teen greeted Shinji, not sounding the least bit intimidated by the fact that a small child was brandishing a tanto. "My name is…"

"Kaworu Nagisa," Shinji cut him, getting to the point of this would-be conversation. "Of course, that's just the name your masters gave you for the sake of appearances. Born one the same day Second Impact occurred, sent to NERV by their superiors to pilot the Evangelion, also for the sake of appearances. I know exactly who…and what you are."

"Is that so?" Kaworu asked him. "You know who I am…but you haven't introduced yourself to me at all. Of course, everyone knows who you are."

"Not everyone knows me. They know of me. There's a difference. I am Shinji Ikari. Forget the designation that NERV labels me. You either have a name to go with your face…or you don't have an identity. The question now is… What do you want?"

"Does there have to be a reason?"

"In most cases, yes. I know not your intentions, since the original plan can't be implemented. No end of the world, no people screaming in agony or ecstasy, no depravity winning out in the end like everything and everyone was some sort of sick game."

"Well, I suppose we could fight…but you'd be at a disadvantage because you lack the Eva."

"Not to sound overconfident, but I don't believe I'll need the Eva."

"You sound very overconfident in your assumption."

"I will offer you this option for the sake of morality and obligation to those around me: Walk away and live. Walk away…and embrace life, not death."

"That sounds…very selfish to ask me."

"Oh, believe me, I'd rather see you alive than dead."

"Oh!" Akira gasped, seeing a stray kitten walk from behind a garbage can and walk towards Shinji. "Shinji, mind the kitten!"

Shinji looked at the stray kitten and felt calmed by its innocence, but what bothered him, though, was that this was most likely the exact kitten from the other life that he never lived except in an alternate life, meaning that…

 _Not this time,_ he thought, crouching down to greet the animal. "Hey, there. How are you today?"

"Mew," the kitten whined; it was lost and hungry.

"There, there," Shinji cooed over it as he held his tanto in his right hand to pick it up with his left hand. "We can't have you out here where there are too many unknown factors."

"Might I see that animal, please?" Kaworu requested, and Shinji turned back to face him, glaring at him with a vicious expression.

"Why?" He asked him.

"So I can put it down."

"Kaworu Nagisa…you and I both know that that's not going to happen. While you may think it a mercy to do so, there are other ways to give mercy to those in need of it…or those deserving of it. You could spare something to eat, take it to an animal shelter, call the animal police, something that doesn't have to involve such a disgraceful act as killing someone or something as defenseless as a kitten."

"Except my putting it down would be much better."

"Except you don't know that," they heard Akira say to Kaworu, getting up from off the bench. "You can't truly call it a mercy to kill any innocent life just because its chances of surviving are slim or none. The only ones with the right to make such choices are those that have to live with the guilt of being unable to save those lives everyday for the rest of their lives. It's not my place to question how one is raised, but just who do you think you are?"

Before there was any response to the question he was asked by the woman, Kaworu Nagisa…was punched in the face by someone unexpected, sent falling backwards onto the ground.

"Ahh!" Shinji gasped, looking up at the culprit, but couldn't believe who it was that assaulted the boy that wanted to kill the kitten. _Unreal._

-x-

Although it wasn't what The Demoness had in mind when she told her to explore what she was capable of, Rei Ayanami felt that it was the best way to to see how far she could go with doing something of that extreme. So, running as fast as she had never thought possible, she went to the park where The Demoness revealed to her the bad truth of her necessity to Commander Ikari…and punched the boy that was engaging the Third Child and his female guardian in his face, sending him to the ground. Looking down at her left hand, barely feeling the mild pain as a consequence of hitting someone so hard in their face, she flexed the fingers for three seconds before looking down at Shinji, who seemed surprised to see her.

"That felt good," she uttered. "I really gotta hand it The Demoness. She is something else way better than anyone else alive today. Toodles."

She then ran off, leaving him and his caretaker behind with the fallen boy she harmed. It was amazing. It was like she was truly alive now. She felt such exhilaration as she accelerated out of the park. The girl hadn't ever felt such freedom, such embrace…or power that came with a body that no longer needed medication just to stay alive. The air passing through to her lungs felt richer, the wind on her face less resistant, even the muscles in her legs felt so full of energy.

 _I feel invincible,_ she thought, deciding to jump a nearby fence for the sake of seeing what she was now capable of doing without fear.

-x-

"Lie still," Kaworu heard someone say to him as he came to on the ground. "Lie still."

As his vision came into focus, he saw Shinji looking down at him.

"Who was that?" He asked the little boy.

"That…was Rei Ayanami," Shinji answered him, "and she just owned you with a blow to the nose that knocked you out for five minutes…and gave you a bloody nose."

The albino boy raised his left hand to his face and felt something fluid under his nose, pulling away to reveal blood.

"I wasn't expecting the First Child to be so…hefty," he confessed.

"She wasn't hefty when I met her," Shinji explained. "She ran like a bullet and punched you like there was no tomorrow. I don't think she even knew you. Can you stand?"

"Yes."

As Kaworu stood up, careful not to move his head so fast, Akira came over and offered him a tissue; it was the first time anyone he didn't know had offered him something so trivial.

"Regardless of how you came to be," she expressed towards him, "Shinji did offer you mercy earlier. Maybe for now, you consider rethinking your life…or whatever it is you're told to do by your superiors, guardians or whoever is responsible for you. Believe it or not, he doesn't want to kill you because your death would be a terrible weight on his conscience, and he doesn't need that at all."

Kaworu sighed and bowed his head to the two before walking away.

"I can't believe she was able to just sneak up on us without my knowing," Shinji uttered, wondering how Rei was able to do what she did without setting off his early warning sense that she had triggered before.

"I've never seen a girl like that move as quick as she did," Akira agreed with him, accepting the kitten from Shinji. "She was like a completely different person, yet she was entirely the same."

"Whatever The Demoness did to her, she made her a heavy hitter."

"Hefty, though? Really, Shinji?"

"Hey, you and Takuya seen her a few times, so you know she looks very…petite. Even with a plugsuit on, she looks indecent."

"Oh, don't get me started on those outfits. Yours is the only one that's actually conservative for your build. But hers is… It's probably due to the female shape."

"Yep."

-x-

Kiel Lorenz, the head of SEELE, was beyond disgusted with Gendo Ikari. The man was embarrassing and disrespecting his entire agency and has made a mockery of both SEELE and NERV with his deranged choices.

"Makes you regret ever giving him control of NERV and its predecessor, doesn't it?" Kiel heard the voice of The Demoness, looking up from his desk and at the very woman that was laying the verbal assault on all the world's secrets.

He reached for his phone.

"Don't bother," she told him. "I'm not really here. I'm right where I need to be on the other side of the planet, but my mind can go anywhere."

"Here to gloat?" He asked her.

"No. Mad people gloat when their plans come to fruition. I'm here to tell you that Gendo only has three days left to do the right thing and return what he took from me before all bets are off."

"And what exactly did he take from you? Tell me and I'll personally see to it that it's returned to you, ma'am."

"Now, you and I both know that is easier said than done. Even the man you sent to Japan to replace Gendo won't be able to do it because he has hidden it away and refuses to disclose its location. Not that it matters, but it's still within the Geo-Front. If it comes to it, I'll simply go down there and take it back through deadly force while making sure that Gendo is punished to the most brutal extent of immortal retribution."

"If you're going to do that, why give him time to do something he won't do?"

"Because when one makes a decision to do anything, including killing another person, even if such a choice has such measures of difficulty, they should do best to take full advantage of the time and plan out every factor. I already have Rei Ayanami defecting from NERV and is now under my protection, so I don't have to worry about her doing anything that could prove disastrous; she's abandoned Gendo in favor of living."

"So, you comatose the Second Child to remove any opposition, taken custody of the First Child for yourself, am I to assume that you have something planned for the Third and Fourth Children, as well? Do you aim to…neutralize them…if you haven't already?"

"Shinji Ikari, my enemy, my objective, the last bane in my very existence…is not on my agenda just yet. And as for the Fourth Child, I won't do anything about him…because I know what he is…and so does Shinji. He is Tabris, the Angel of Free Will and Alternatives, the final Angel and Adam's soul, or rather, a semblance of his soul, incarnated within a human form. Whether or not Shinji kills him is of no concern for me, so long as the little boy survives for me; the only one that can kill him is me."

"If you're going to kill the boy, why wait until later?"

"Great things often come to those who wait. And I must say that I have a respect for him because he wants to protect that which matters to him. He has no desire for wealth or power, not even the so-called unity of your Human Instrumentality Project, which, sad to say, isn't an original goal because it's been done before. Actually, it's been done many times, including before my time, by people that wanted to explore the boundaries of the soul. It's not something that lasts forever, unlike death and rebirth, which are constants. You can't have life without death, and you can't experience life again unless you believe in rebirth. Not disappointed to say that your goal has been for naught since the day Gendo forced his son to operate the Evangelion that used to house his wife's essence. That means the future can only go two ways in the end."

"That sounds like gloating."

"Maybe a little, but you can rest assured that the world will be in good hands when the Game ends. I know more about you than you know nothing about me, Kiel Lorenz. You're a former Watcher, a member of that secret society of individuals that observe and record the activities of immortals but never interfere. In fact, you're actually the last of the Watchers alive; all the other ones are dead, including the Hunters that decided to try and kill the immortals. You didn't say it, but you had your suspicions that Shinji was immortal because a fourteen-year-old boy isn't going to look like a pint-sized toddler unless they contracted dwarfism or systemic hypoplasia. You didn't think a child immortal was able to become such a threat to your agenda, let alone be the child of a would-be pawn that had his own agenda."

"So, now that you know these things, what do you plan to do? Kill me?"

"Kill you? No, you're already halfway to your grave. I'd give you three years, at least. Prosthetics today, including the ones you use, aren't as sophisticated as the ones in the movies are shown to be. I do have a warning, though. Stay away from the little boy. He is mine."

Then, she was gone, just like that, leaving him alone in his office.

-x-

That night, the whole world was victim to another round of secrets exposed by The Demoness in response to Gendo's refusal.

 _To all those that think Second Impact was caused by a meteor, think again,_ she telepathically informed them. _Second Impact was caused by the arrogance of people that sought to become immortal by massacring the whole human race by means of a colossal organism beyond their understanding, which they used to destroy Antarctica by manipulating a research team that Gendo Rokubungi-Ikari was a part of. Employing scientists with weak wills and passions for discovery that made them forget about their lives and those that were supposed to matter, the darker minds behind the maiming of the world condemned clueless men and women to their deaths, leaving only one child survivor, Misato Katsuragi, that had nothing to do with any of it…and one traitor that betrayed them by returning Japan the day before it all happened, taking the research files with him, even though the work wasn't finished._

This was sure to get a rise out of many people that hate Gendo, but The Demoness wasn't done digging the grave just yet for him tonight.

 _And then, there's Kozo Fuyutsuki, former metaphysical biology professor from Kyoto University,_ she continued. _For years after Yui Ikari faked her death, he sneered at Gendo in silence. Oh, how he deserved every waking moment of it because he is the representation of self-hatred and unjustifiable hatred towards others gone wrong. I'm not reading his mind right now, but I hope Fuyutsuki's still sneering in silence at Gendo; he deserves to have that hatred, to be disgusted by those around him, to know that his actions have consequences._

"I always felt like that man didn't like Gendo," went Takuya as he, Akira and Shinji were having dinner with Takeru; it was decided that Gendo's father would have dinner with the three by Akira since the man shouldn't have dinner by himself.

"I couldn't imagine there being any reason why someone like him would work for someone like…him," added Shinji.

 _I think I've rattled on enough about NERV for tonight. I'll rattle on about the FBI and Russian governments now and their corruption._

They and everyone else across the globe heard her expose everything she was willing to reveal about the police and foreign country to unhinge the stability further. And then, fourteen minutes after…she started revealing how places suffering from radioactive fallout could be made habitable again with resources like bacteria designed to consume radiation and negate it completely or manipulating the acceleration of its radioactive half-life, followed by how genetic engineering today was so primitive that it was like trying to teach a newborn walrus how to speak a human language with an electronic tablet because nobody that worked in the field was willing to trust others completely to do something so revolutionary as preserve existing life or restore life that once existed.

But as she continued disclosing these hidden and guarded secrets, Shinji, while paying attention to The Demoness, thought that the way she spoke about genetic engineering seemed rather…spiteful…and almost as though it was something painful for her to say in a strange way.

… _Hopefully, tomorrow night will reveal some more things that are beneficial to the people that were harmed by those that took advantage of their pain like parasites feeding off their bodies to survive without restraint,_ The Demoness stated, ending her telepathic broadcast until the next day. _How you use the knowledge that you receive in the future decides many things._

"Shinji?" Akira asked him, noticing his expression to be one where he was in deep thought.

"It's probably just my imagination, but didn't it sound like The Demoness was spiteful towards the field of genetic engineering for some reason?" He responded.

"Yeah," said Takeru in revelation, "for a moment, it did seem like talking about it disgusted her for some reason, even though it was to inform the world that it's not all that impressive because those that work the field aren't completely open to one another. Why?"

"Maybe I should take advantage of the fact that the last Angel is what keeps her from wanting to claim my head…just to try and talk with her about it."

"Now, I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear you say that, Shinji," Takuya told him. "No way, even in Hell turned upside-down, should you go anywhere near that woman."

"Not by himself," went Takeru, "but what if I went with him? She's already made it clear that she's not interested in any other immortals except him…and I'm willing to get involved to keep him safe in case she thinks about reneging."

"I think she'd kill you in two seconds," Akira told him her honest opinion. "Also, we don't know where she is right now. She could be anywhere in the city."

"She won't be too far away from me," Shinji revealed. "If she's anything like those that hunt down other immortals as much as possible, then she's like an apex predator of the highest level."

"Meaning?"

"Even if she were to shack up somewhere on the other end of the city like how a lioness lives in a den…she'll want to stay as close as possible to her prey, her zebra, hippo or something of the sort to take out later."

"That's assuming she's anything like others. But the cold truth has always been that we don't know anything about her. We could've seen her once in the past and didn't realize it unless she was after us."

-x-

"…I heard from Maya that Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki didn't show up today," Shigeru told Hyuga as they both arrived at NERV the next morning.

"How did she hear about it when she herself isn't here?" He questioned; he had suspected that Maya wouldn't show up for work the next day after the discovery that Dr. Akagi and her mother had an affair with Commander Ikari became more difficult for her to process.

"She still has her contacts that do come by."

"Oh. No doubt that bastard still won't return whatever it is he took from The Demoness. What is wrong with him?"

"He's going to get us all killed by her because he won't return some property to her. I might as well resign. The Angels be damned because of him."

"Likewise."

As they walked inside the metal pyramid, deep within the structure, in the living quarters of those that lived within the facility, the Fourth Child, Kaworu Nagisa, examined his nose in a mirror and was relieved to find it healed, with just a slight discoloration from the small bruising.

"Hefty," he sighed, wrapping his head around the fact that he was hit by a girl that he would've said was the same as him…if he had met her earlier. _But she's not the same, anymore. She's…straightened out, improved, made better than ever. It's unlikely that NERV was able to do performance enhancement._

Meanwhile, just outside the base, Yui, who was still reeling in from the fact that her former mentor had been sneering at her husband ever since the contact experiment from over ten years ago, had just responded to a phone call.

"Yes?" She asked whoever was calling. "What?"

-x-

He was brought into the hospital after collapsing on the street by a bluenette girl that just happened to be visiting him, and the doctors found her listed as his emergency contact. As far as anyone could tell, Kozo Fuyutsuki had become one of The Demoness' twenty victims of the day, but only after Rei Ayanami had a brief conversation with him.

Yui rushed to the hospital and found the albino girl standing in the hall outside the room the elder was put in alongside others in the coma ward. What surprised her a little bit was the way the girl was dressed; instead of her school uniform, Rei was wearing a yellow vest over a white shirt and a black skort.

"Did you do this?" She asked her.

"Not me," Rei defended, unafraid of the woman. "I was just leaving his apartment when he fell into his coma. I chose to bring him to the hospital and make sure he was tended to. Whether or not The Demoness chose him because I spoke with him is unknown to me, but I will speak with her to ascertain the reason. If it was my fault, I will apologize for my actions."

"Why are you siding with this woman? She's dangerous. Look at what she's done so far to unhinge the world."

"Except what she's done seems to be better than what you and your husband were aiming to do using your son, and one of the lesser of many other evils believed to exist when you're opened to the possibilities others don't often see."

"How is this a lesser evil? What do you see in what she has done…and is doing? What could you possibly see in her?"

"Purpose. Freedom from exploitation, manipulation and abandonment. If you want to view her as a literal embodiment of a great demon, that is your choice, and if you think I am a servant and follower of this demon, then it is better to serve the new master that has plans for everyone that doesn't include reducing them to just their souls and gathering them up."

The way she was talking, it was like someone took out her brain and tinkered with it to make her think differently from the way she used to. It was as though she had…resentment towards her and Gendo…and The Demoness unleashed what was bottled up inside.

"So, you're just going to stand aside and wait for her to kill Shinji?" Yui asked her.

"Whether that happens or the opposite is up to a force higher than what you thought you could control. It's in fate's hands. Though I'm not the only one putting their faith in her to win the Game and claim the Prize." Rei expressed.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Rei smiled and waved her curiosity off, turning to walk away.

"It's just the way I said it," she told her, turning a corner and leaving the ward.

-x-

"…You can't keep this up forever," Ritsuko told Gendo in his office. "Your replacement is here, Sub-Commander Fuyutsuki is in the hospital, more of our personnel is leaving en masse and the media has been speaking of NERV being demanded to shut down. Look, just return the choker to her and she'll likely stop this insanity."

"I can't do that," he told her. "I refuse to be bullied by some woman."

"Well, this woman has become your greatest enemy, and one you can't hope to beat. And I can't be a part of this any longer. The ridicule and whispers are enough."

"You can't walk away from this."

"I'm not the one enraging this woman that may want you dead if all bets are off. If she does come down here to take it back, nobody's going to protect you from her. Nobody really can protect you from her."

"I wouldn't be surprised if this Devil's Mistress did come down here to take back what's hers," a male voice uttered, and the two looked at the entrance of the office to see a man in his early-forties with gray hair and dark eyes, dressed in a dark suit, "which is looking more likely, considering that NERV has almost no time left to prevent that from happening."

"You're my replacement?" Gendo asked him.

"Yes, and you're required by NERV regulations to vacate the premises as of now."

"And what chance do you have of dealing with this woman?"

"Whatever you took from her will be returned to her, negating her threat to come down here and take it back through deadly force."

"Except I'm expecting for the Third Child to eliminate this woman should she do decide to come down here."

"The Third Child? He was tasked to eliminate the Angels, not people who put you on their hit list for crossing them. It's already enough that he dealt with these monsters that threaten mankind. Now, there's only one left. Once he's eliminated the last Angel, he will be relieved of his duties as a pilot to the Evangelion and, if need be, compensated for his services to NERV."

"You can't possibly be serious," said Ritsuko; the immortal child was already compensated for the damage Gendo had done to his bike, and now NERV was expected to compensate him further when the remaining Angel was dealt with?

"Only if need be."

"Well, the item that the woman wants back is a goth-themed choker that may be made entirely out of orichalcum because it doesn't register as any other metal that exists on the periodic table, which makes its potential value quite substantial. However, Ikari refuses to give it back."

"Doctor Akagi," went Gendo.

"Then we have a major problem here," the replacement stated, "and I'm authorized to use whatever methods I choose to rectify the situation."

"You may try, but there is no way to rectify this problem."

-x-

"…Hey," Shinji greeted Toji, Kensuke and Hikari at the park, glad to see them.

"Hey, Shinji," Hikari greeted back.

"How are you three holding up?"

"I'll be honest, Shinji," went Kensuke, "my dad and I are terrified of The Demoness. I had to explain to him that she was the woman we saw that night you invited us to dinner, and he almost freaked and got his revolver."

"My sister's afraid to leave the house," added Toji. "My grandfather worries that The Demoness might attack us without warning."

"My father is considering moving us away from here," Hikari explained, "but I had to explain to him that there was nowhere to run to…and that you're really all that stands in her way."

"And how did he react to the fact that everyone's future hangs in the balance between a little boy and a woman that must fight to the death?" Shinji asked, wanting to know.

"Oh, he was worried further."

"Well, that's more pressure on me."

"Sorry, Shinji."

"No, it's okay. Nobody's perfect. And The Demoness, she's just extremely pissed because of my father, may he pay for his foolishness in the end without paying the ultimate price."

"So, what's your plan of attack?" Toji asked him.

"I have no plan of attack. I still have the last Angel to deal with that prevents her from coming after me…and I'm hoping that he makes the choice that keeps me from crossing the line I don't want to cross with him."

"Does his death really break you?" Kensuke asked.

"Since we're believing of a multitude of alternate universes that stem from an original version that fractured on a bad note, yes, I believe that killing him is the wrong choice to make because it's not the best choice for this Angel…and because if you take the cause out of him, he has no cause for him to live for."

"So, basically, if you take away the need to fight in a war from him, there is no war for him to fight in."

"Yes, exactly. That's what should happen."

"Did you meet the guy yet?" Toji asked.

"Yesterday. Did you three see Ayanami lately?"

"No, why?" Hikari asked him.

"I think she got into something worse than drugs or steroids after siding with The Demoness. She didn't look different, but she was…hefty, able to deck the guy with just a punch in the face…and then run like an athlete right out of here."

"No way!" Toji and Kensuke gasped.

"Way. I saw her do it. It was like something out of _Spider-Man_ or _Captain America_ , but no special chamber or genetically-modified or irradiated spider bite."

Whoosh! That feeling, unlike with an immortal, alerted him to a person that he didn't feel yesterday, and Shinji turned around and looked at a streetlight.

"Kami," he shuddered at the sight of Rei Ayanami…and The Demoness.

"Oh, don't mind me," The Demoness told them, sitting on a bench now. "I'm here because you were going to try and find me, talk to me. I made it easier for you by coming here."

"And Ayanami?" Shinji asked her, pointing to the albino girl.

"I'm merely letting her see what she's capable of doing now that she no longer needs medication. If she comes off as heightened, that's just a temporary side-effect of my methods."

"Heightened? She's more like the way a teen girl of today's generation is expected to behave when not raised properly by the parents."

"Are you any different, Immortal Ikari? Of course, you have a justifiable reason to disobey your parents. They're failures."

Shinji sighed and chose not to press the issue further and speak of his reason for why he had intended to go look for the woman.

"Last night," he started, "when you spoke about genetic engineering, you sounded as though you had some negativity towards it. You got me curious about your feelings on the subject."

"And you think I'm just going to share my personal feelings towards the field that your mother devoted herself to that led to the world-ending abomination that is the Evangelion?" She responded, just wanting to hear his belief.

"Coming from you, you seem to be disgusted by the field."

"Eh-heh-heh. Ah-ha-ha! I must give you props, boy. Your assumptions of my disgust aren't far from the truth. Yes, I am disgusted by genetic engineering…but not for the reasons you think. The real reason, I'm keeping to myself until we face off. You still have one Angel left to face, and he is all that keeps you safe from me and the Game in play."

Shinji frowned and turned away from The Demoness.

"Oh, don't worry," she told him. "I'm not going to do anything to you or your friends and their loved ones that I can do to others. You're a powerful warrior, trained by the best teacher you know of, and I won't do anything foolish to throw you off your game. That's…not how I roll. A promising adversary offers a promising battle to the death, so I want you at your strongest…for when I come for you."

The Demoness looked at the people outside the park, either walking by or driving in cars or trucks. The sight of them just seemed so…insignificant…and dull.

"Look at them as they delude themselves into thinking everything's fine out there," she uttered. "They're just scurrying about like insects, getting back into routine. I've looked into their minds, seeing their secrets, their fears, and they're all incredibly minute compared to what could await them. None of them have the slightest clue how close they came to seeing their final days were it not for your intervention. But even if they didn't know, they're still quite pathetic in their everyday lives. As a whole, they don't know much about the bane that comes with our status, or our struggles to make it to the Gathering. They don't know about living and dying by the sword, honor, respecting your adversary, the thrill of the battle, the exhilaration of the hunt, the success or failure of the outcome. Tell me, boy, do you honestly think any of them could ever grasp what it truly means to be immortal?"

"I doubt that anyone ever could," Shinji answered, "and we're not immortal. Not truly. I'm sure you must've heard thousands of the people you went after make the same claim, that they were invincible or beyond other people…and I'm sure every last one of them met their ends at your sword in the end."

"Yes, I have. Hundreds of thousands, in fact. Almost one-million, give or take. Maybe your head will fall at my sword, as well. Only time will tell. But that's for another time. Do your best to survive, Immortal Ikari."

She walked away from them and left the park, followed by Rei.

"Don't disappoint her," she told Shinji.

"Yikes," went Hikari, holding Toji's right hand. "Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse than before."

"I know," Toji agreed with her.

Shinji sighed and shook his head.

"Hey, you three, I'm gonna head back to NERV HQ," he informed them. "Hopefully, I will settle this with the last of the Angels for good and they'll be only one less problem to take care of."

"You be careful down there," said Kensuke to him.

"Yeah, thanks."

-x-

"…So, you threw him in the brig?" Yui asked the new commander of NERV as he sat in a smaller office that was more…welcoming than the previous office wasn't.

"He refused to vacate the premises and disclose the location of the missing item that he had stolen from this woman that's revealing many things that are taking the world by surprise," he explained to her, looking at the various surveillance photos of The Demoness on his desk. "If you know where he put it, I'd appreciate it if you told me, please."

"I have no idea where he put the choker. He won't tell me anything."

"Great. Security checked him as he being detained and it wasn't on him. I'm having his office torn apart in case there are hidden safes or rooms, but nothing so far."

"If it's not returned to her soon, what do you suspect the chances of her coming down here with deadly intentions to take it back are?"

"If I were a gambling man? I wouldn't bet on her not unleashing a hail of bullets to get what she wants. We have a contact number, but she's not taking any calls at the moment."

"Maybe she wants to see what happens. Maybe she wants to see how far my husband will go to defy her."

"That will be most likely the worst that is yet to come."

Meanwhile, in the brig, sporting a series of bruises on his face and knuckles, Gendo was fuming over his loss, but sneering at how NERV wouldn't find the choker unless The Demoness told them where to look.

 _Fools,_ he thought.

-x-

"I wouldn't try using any of the Evas, Mr. Nagisa," said Shinji to Kaworu, finding him on the umbilical bridge in front of Unit-01. "I know what happens, and I am not looking to echo any of it. Also… I doubt you could do anything with this one. It's mine to control."

Kaworu sighed and looked at him.

"Unit-01 is virtually soulless," he revealed. "Yet you're able to control it as though it did, make it bend to your will. I can't manipulate any Eva unless the soul within it is in hiding. Unit-01 has no soul unless you're the the one inside it, making it akin to a remote control unit. Unit-00 is a complicated monstrosity due to its primitive design."

"Yeah, Unit-00 has always been black sheep of the Eva Series. So, if you can't use any of the Evas, you shouldn't have to fight anyone. Why try to fight for something that is impossible to achieve on any level desired by those that seek it to escape from this plane of existence?"

"You'd rather be content with life as it is now over what could be if everything were made to stop? You'd have your ideal world, however you see fit for yourself."

"Except that's not happiness. It's not even salvation for anyone. It's just a cheap way to escape from reality, to eliminate the failures and disgraces of oneself by smashing their soul with the souls of other people to fill in the necessary gaps that provide for individuality. You're supposed to be the Angelic representative of Free Will and Alternatives…because free will is considered a gift from the Almighty One…and your masters seek to remove it from the people, knowing full well that everyone has the right to decline some pompous belief that uniting all souls is a good thing. Like the rest of the world, you have free will and the ability to make individual choices. You can choose for yourself how you want to go out in life, but you can also choose how to live, how to be remembered by others. All I'm asking of you…is to choose life, not death. Choose to live rather than to die."

"If I don't follow my orders, they'll kill me, regardless."

"Then I'll keep you safe from them. I'll protect you like I protect those I can't bear to lose to the negative repercussions of causality. Believe it or not, it's happened too many times that it's a broken tune I'm tired of hearing, and wish to change it. To lose people to natural causes or simple breakups is preferable to being abandoned or cast aside because relationships turn sour due to unwanted casualties caused by factors beyond morality."

"Except that seems very selfish."

"Is it truly selfish to want to keep things from escalating out of hand into very bad territory? I've already, more or less, given up on my parents, particularly my father. I see no reason to give up on trying to save you from a premature demise…even if you're not worth the migraine."

Kaworu saw how Shinji held onto his tanto sheathe at his left side.

"You must be very brave to face me with just a small blade," he told the boy, pointing to the weapon, "or just foolish."

"I've been many things," Shinji countered, raising his right hand up, generating the pinkish glow that represented the Fourth Angel. "I've been called things that relate to my size, my personality, my overall behavior. Yes, I've even been considered foolish. Hard not to be or think. Tell me, what do you see for yourself, say, um…a year from now…if you had a year? Is that a foolish question to ask you?"

"Yes, it is."

"You know what I'd like to see a year from now? I'd like to see what Japan looks like during the winter season. I'd like to see coastal cities and areas that were lost because of Second Impact made habitable once more, nuclear energy and weapons rendered redundant, war just a thing of the past, animal and plant life thriving again. I wanna see things like that…without the desire for unifying all souls. If people actually put in the effort to heal the world instead of harm it, such things could be possible."

"You actually believe in these? In possibilities?"

"Life is all about possibilities…and impossibilities. Third Impact? That's been reduced to just an idea, a misbegotten and foolish fantasy that deserves to be forgotten about. My being a small fry until I turn twenty or so? That's possible. You living to see old age? You don't see that possibility for your future?"

-x-

"What the Hell are they talking about?" Misato asks Ritsuko in a control room, noticing the Third Child speaking with the Fourth Child through security cameras, seeing the former's right hand glowing like fire, only pink. "And how is he able to do that?"

"Probably side-effects from his high synchronization with the Eva," Ritsuko suggested, entering codes to activate the audio devices in the Eva cages so that they could hear the conversation between the two.

"…You'll stop at nothing to get out of having to fight the last Angel, won't you?" The Fourth Child asked.

"The other Angels, I could live with doing them in because there was no other choice but to fight them to protect those that needed to be protected," the pint-sized boy responded, "but you're the last of them, and there is absolutely no need to fight you or even kill you. Even The Demoness isn't interested in you, and she could kill you without any hesitation or fear of the consequences. I fear what might happen if she did do so. Believe me when I say that I can save you from this cruel fate…if you'll let me…and I'd like to do so before The Demoness decides to do something that's a result of my father's arrogance because she wants her choker back."

"Your father stole a woman's choker?"

"You know the girl that knocked you out the other day?"

"The First Child."

"Well, the woman that made it possible for her to do that is the same woman that my father disrespected by stealing from her and is the very cause for many people getting put into comatose states and why the world lost its arsenal of nukes. If fear had a name and a face, it would be hers, because she is very much the Devil incarnated within a woman, someone who's actually more dangerous than you or I could ever be."

 _The boy is the last Angel?_ Misato thought.

Ring! The phone beside Ritsuko rang and she answered it.

"Akagi," she uttered. "Sir, there seems to be some indication that the Fourth Child is the last Angel, and the Third Child is attempting to deal with it."

Ritsuko then handed the phone over to the purple-haired woman.

"Sir?" She spoke, and heard the orders given to her by the replacement commander. "Understood, sir. Very well."

She hung up and told Ritsuko, "We're to observe and see what happens."

"But if the Fourth Child is the last Angel, we have a responsibility to see him killed."

"Whatever the Third Child's up to, we're just to observe them for now."

"You're afraid of this woman?" The Fourth Child questioned.

"She invokes fear in everyone," the Third Child explained. "To be afraid of her is to admit one's fear…and to deny one's fear of her…is to admit that you're a coward for denying so."

Then, they watched from cameras as Kaworu Nagisa approached the little boy and then stopped when he raised his left hand up, just as the pinkish glow of Shinji's hand turned white.

"That light," he uttered, almost sounding surprised. "That is the light that only Adam possesses. How is it possible for you to have possession of it?"

"Because, with the exceptions of yourself and the Angel of Birds known as Arael," Shinji responded, "I possess the power of the other Angels, including their progenitors, Adam and Lilith. Their powers, their memories, everything…except for the souls of Adam and Lilith, possessed by you and Ayanami, respectively. You'd think that having such power would be like a drug or addiction to something, but it's actually quite normal for me; I don't feel hooked or on top of the world."

 _He has the powers of the Angels?_ Misato and Ritsuko both thought.

"Yes, you do, yet you have them to such a degree that is unheard of," said the albino boy.

"How so?" Shinji asked him.

"You demonstrate them in ways the previous owners of such powers didn't think of."

"Learn from the comics, learn from the cartoons, learn from the movies, and learn from your teachers. I learned to master my abilities from the best teachers I know…and I make the rest up as I find myself in situations where I have to be innovative or imitative."

"You Lilin have always been rather creative."

"Creativity is one of a person's best aspects. Didn't you once consider music to be people's greatest achievement?"

"I did…but…I never told you that. How did you…"

"Memories of a life I never lived…but weigh heavily upon me because they actually transpired in one other life where things just went bad. Nothing like what happened around here with The Demoness…but still bad. The worst form of bad. An inescapable cataclysm. A devastating ruination. An…apocalypse brought upon the world by people that just wanted to see the world end…and they used a fourteen-year-old boy who was as banged up as anyone that's emotionally unstable to do it…and he was forced to pay the ultimate price as the survivor."

"Oh? And what price did he pay? What price…did you pay?"

"Loneliness. Eternity. Existence…fractured into countless other existences where something else happens…and where exists many possibilities and impossibilities. Cities that float in the sky, civilizations where people cease aging after they reach a certain age and where time is literally money, worlds where monsters truly exist and are the top of the food chain…and all those start with how one world fell into Hell…and how other worlds can either fall into the same fate or those that have the power to prevent it from happening can stand up and do something to keep it that way."

-x-

"Guys, I'm worried about Shinji," went Hikari to Toji and Kensuke as they sat in the kitchen at her house. "What if he can't defeat the last Angel without killing them? What if he has to cross that line?"

"Have faith, Hikari," said Toji to her, setting down his chopsticks as he paused from eating the meal she had prepared for them. "Shinji has saved the city and the rest of the world from the previous Angels that showed up to attack. If he can stop this Angel, maybe with that method he used on his grandfather, then he can end the threat of the Angels, leaving only The Demoness. He'll need to be at his best for when he faces her. If he wants to save this guy that's the last threat to our lives, he will find a way to do it."

"Yeah, Shinji has the means to do it his way," Kensuke agreed with his friend. "Also, didn't we all promise to do something when it was over? With the Game and everything?"

"Yeah," she told them, "we did."

Ring-ring! Kensuke's phone rang and he picked up.

"This is Aida, Kensuke," he uttered, and his eyes widened. "Shinji, what's going on with you? Yeah, they're with me. We're all at Hikari's. Hold on."

Kensuke set his phone on the table and switched its audio to speaker.

"Okay, go ahead, Shinji," he told him.

"If I'm going to stop the last Angel, I gotta take this situation I'm in to the Taoist Building!" Shinji revealed to them.

"What?" Toji gasps. "Why there?"

"Unfortunately, this guy has never been atop a skyscraper before and wants to experience that before his life changes."

"When?" Hikari asks.

"Tonight. I'm taking him there now."

"Now? But (Hikari looks at her watch, checking the time)…it's late, Shinji. You're easy prey out there. Does Akira and Takuya know where you're going?"

"Yes, they do, and they're meeting me there."

-x-

The Demoness found this method to pass time to be just as dull as the other few methods she tried until the late hours where she would reveal many secrets to the world using her newfound power. Nearly three hours ago since she last saw the immortal boy, and she just stepped out of a theater after watching a superhero flick that didn't meet her expectations. Stopping beside an advertisement poster of the film she had just watched, she sighed and was again disappointed by the way the film was made.

"Where on this planet do they come up with such poor tastes?" She questioned, and then resumed her walk down the street. "All five of those teens were flawed by their past and screwed by their present. At least the Doom guy was corrupted enough to admit it."

Whoosh! She felt the presence of an immortal nearby, and looked towards the Taoist Building.

 _Immortal Ikari,_ she realized, feeling his presence…and another presence that was similar to Arael's and those of the Angels. _Adam's human reincarnation. This could be worth my time to observe out here._

She walked towards the building where the immortals met for the Gathering, feeling that something just as important was going to happen there.

-x-

"…So, the Third and Fourth Children went to this building?" The new commander asked the Bridge Bunnies on Central Dogma, seeing the holographic and geographic layout of Tokyo-3.

"Yeah, the Taoist Building," answered Maya. "As the tallest building in the city, it makes the most sense that they would go there."

-x-

It was such a grand view of the city below. The bright lights and the minor traffic noises did nothing to impede its beauty.

"So beautiful," went Kaworu as he looked down the world beneath him and Shinji. "Beautiful."

"You've never once been on a skyscraper before?" Shinji asked him again, making sure he understood why he agreed to this request.

"Never," he answered him. "Skyscrapers, towers, pyramids. What is it about these constructs that attract you Lilin to them and the thought of viewing the world from above?"

"There are many reasons for our attraction to such constructs. Maybe because we don't want to climb mountaintops, or it's something about scenic views that appeal to our souls. Who knows for certain?"

Whoosh! He felt The Demoness' presence again and turned towards the opposite end of the rooftop, right where she stood, which confused him, as there were no stairs there; he and Kaworu were right near the stairs.

"Oh, don't mind me," she told him. "I'm just here to see what happens next. A movie I went to see about five people turned into superhuman abnormalities where four team up against the fifth didn't live up to my standards."

Kaworu turned to face her…and immediately felt weak in his knees and fell to them.

"Who is she?" He asked Shinji, all the blood draining from his face.

"This…is The Demoness…with a capital 'T' for 'The'," the boy explained. "She's the only other immortal besides myself…and the deadliest one."

"Oh, the deadliest immortal? Really? Is that why I find myself suddenly unable to understand why I'm on my knees, trembling?"

"What you're feeling right now only happens when you're near her. That's fear you're feeling. The Demoness can be…quite intimidating."

"But she hasn't done anything."

"She doesn't have to do anything to be intimidating…but her presence is enough to install fear in others. She frightens even me."

The Demoness smiled at the fact that Shinji was willing to admit that he was scared of her.

"How did you get up here?" Shinji asked her. "There's only one stairway and we were near it."

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. So I'll show you."

Shinji couldn't believe it when he saw it, but it was unlike anything he had seen from past immortals. Somehow, beyond all rational explanation, The Demoness…possessed a pair of angelic wings that just…manifested on her back. They were the purest of white, maybe tinged with silver because of the way they glistened in the moonlight, and were quite huge, possibly twice the woman's height in terms of their length.

"Another gift from the Angel of Birds?" He questioned, watching as they vanished.

"You wish they were," she responded. "They're mine. I've had them for as long as I've been alive. Quite a long time since I've ever used them to actually get around. Mankind's ability to engineer improved methods of travel tends to reduce one's need to use their other methods."

GASP! They heard someone gasp, and turned to see Akira and Takuya; they, too, had seen The Demoness' wings.

"Oh, silly me, now I've done it," The Demoness said. "I'm only here to see what transpires. I'm not after the Immortal Ikari…yet."

Akira didn't take her eyes off the woman as she approached Shinji and the albino boy.

"I take it that you're enjoying the view of the city from here?" She asked Kaworu, offering her left hand to help him up.

"Yes, ma'am," he answered. "Your grandson wins."

"Just like that?" Takuya asked him.

"Your grandson is…persuasive and reasonable when it comes to what is still possible and what shouldn't be attempted…and has offered me his protection if the people that sent me here were to want me dead."

Akira looked at Shinji, who nodded his head in the positive. She smiled at him as she lowered to meet his gaze.

"Another undesirable death you can't have on your conscience?" She asked him.

"Excluding the ones that come after us or where escape isn't an option, there are a handful of deaths I don't want on my conscience," he explained. "Ask me how I would sleep at night with a death on my conscience."

"Shinji, how would you sleep at night with a death on your conscience?" Takuya asked him.

"Like I let someone I cared for down because I didn't try hard enough to ensure their right to live to see old age."

 _He pressures himself harder than anyone else could to do his best,_ thought The Demoness, seeing that Shinji had his own expectations of himself that weighed heavily upon his successes or failures that stemmed from both his parents and dealing with the Angels.

She then sat down and crossed her legs.

"It would seem the only thing greater than your fear of me, boy…is your fear of failure," she told Shinji. "You want to believe that by defying what has happened before in one other life, you can redeem your soul of any guilt of having failed them. Failure is…your torment. Saving them, your salvation. Just as it has been said to be proud of your enemy and enjoy their success, I should congratulate you for your success. You've protected your friends, punished your parents for their choices regarding yourself and the world, made the Eva an unnecessary abomination unfit to be remembered for generations to come…if there are any, that is."

"Why is it that when you say that, it sounds as though you yourself aren't sure?" Takuya questioned her.

"Nothing for sure. There is only then and now. We're still a ways to go before we can get to later, which will be now…and then."

Shinji sighed and looked at Kaworu before unsheathing his tanto.

"Are you ready?" He asked him.

"Just a minute more, please," he responded, taking one last gaze upon the city below them, just wanting to savor the moment. "It truly is beautiful when you think about it."

"Yes, it is."

"Okay. What must I do to avoid the unnecessary fate?"

-x-

"Say, do you think Shinji has done it by now?" Toji asked Hikari as he and Kensuke walked out of the Class Rep's home.

Before Hikari could answer, the night sky lit up with an electrical light display, centering around the top of a building from afar. Lights were flickering on and off as the whole city's power grid was being affected by what had to be a Quickening occurring on the very rooftop of the Taoist Building between Shinji and the last Angel.

"Yep," she answered Toji, holding his hand.

The Quickening lasted for two minutes before it ceased, and the power flowed normally throughout the city.

-x-

Feeling stripped of his power as an Angel, Kaworu fell to his bottom and looked up at the night sky, panting from the exhilaration he felt. He felt like a completely new person now, no longer bound by a fate that was undeserving.

"How do you feel?" The Demoness had asked him.

"Like I'm one of you now," he answered her, accepting his new status as a member of the Lilin.

Shinji, being picked up Akira, had lost consciousness again from the Quickening, but held onto his tanto.

"Well, Kaworu, you were the last Angel, so it's only natural that the Quickening generated by you would drain Shinji of his stamina and knock him out," she stated, but then looked at The Demoness as she herself got up.

"And with that, only the Immortal Ikari and I, The Demoness, remain," she uttered, and then performed a curtsy before them. "One aspect of honor is to respect your opponent's inability to fight and defend themselves. I will not stoop so low to attack a child immortal that is incapacitated and unable to fight back. So, I shall take my leave and retire for the night. No secrets shall be divulged tonight, but I shall divulge tomorrow until the seventh day. After which, I shall deal with the boy's father myself. Good evening to you all."

Her wings appeared on her back again, and she took to the sky.

-x-

Rei sensed a massive change in the air after the electrical power display across the sky over Tokyo-3, and knew something was over. Whatever threat the Angels had posed to mankind…had officially ceased with the outcome ending in that little brat Third Child's favor.

"No more Angels to face," she uttered, looking out her bedroom window, "no more need for the Eva to be piloted. All that remains now…is the Game that needs to be won. To the victor go the spoils…and to the winner of the Game…goes the Prize and all that comes with it."

She, along with other people affiliated with The Demoness, was rooting for the deadliest immortal to win the Game and change the world. There was much at stake for herself in this serious matter, namely true freedom from people like Gendo Ikari, who would likely be paying for his crimes against the world and the people that would be coming for him.

-x-

Space was many things to people, but for Shinji, it was just an endless ocean of stars and planets separated into an endless galaxies. As he stood on what had to be the Earth's moon, he looked up and saw Unit-01, withering away to dust. Behind it were two humanoid figures; the one on the left was shaped like an Evangelion made of light, and the other one resembled a marshmallow person with a purple mask.

Adam and Lilith, their bodies removed from the face of existence, leaving only their souls to wander around.

"I must be dreaming," Shinji suspected.

Adam and Lilith then changed their forms, now looking like Kaworu and Rei.

"People will not be united under us," said Rei to him.

"And we will not be exploited by people, anymore, thanks to your efforts to change things," added Kaworu. "Do your best, Shinji. Do your best to preserve the future as you see it from your perspective…and no one else's."

They then faded away, leaving him alone. Now, only one enemy remained for him…and Shinji would need all the power he had amassed if he was to survive and come out on top. There was no more protection from the final adversary against the final adversary…and no more delays but the distance and priorities between them. The final battle was nearing.

The Game had resumed its course.

To be continued…

A/N: Well, that's that. All the Angels are disposed of, leaving Shinji to focus his attention on The Demoness and her threat to him and the world should he fail. But first, he needs to recoup for a while to regain his own strength to deal with her. Peace!


	21. Back to the Game

Creation began on 04-03-18

Creation ended on 04-20-18

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Immortal Ikari: Back to the Game

NERV was dealing with an issue that stemmed from the event that occurred last night in the city. With the fall of the last Angel (which Shinji didn't kill), the paramilitary agency was officially done with the reason it existed for.

"Where is the Third Child right now?" The replacement commander asked Misato in Central Dogma.

"He's currently at his residence," she revealed. "The Fifth Child returned to the base and hasn't left his quarters since last night."

"Just until further notice, keep an eye on them. More so on the Fifth Child than the Third Child."

"And should another Angel appear?" Ritsuko asked him.

"We'll let the Third Child deal with it…should it ever come to that."

-x-

With the school closed again, Toji, Hikari and Kensuke rushed over to Shinji, who would most likely be asleep to recover from the latest Quickening.

"Good morning, you three," greeted Takuya to them when they rang the bell.

"Is Shinji still asleep?" Toji asked him.

"Yep. But now it's weird. He's…doing a _Ghostbusters_."

"What?!" Kensuke questioned.

"Come and see."

They came inside and he led them to Shinji's room, where said boy was not asleep on his futon.

Shinji…was asleep…floating five feet above his futon with his blanket.

"Creepy," went Hikari.

"Yes, it is," agreed Akira, who was bothered by this new development. "Probably a new power he's subconsciously tapping into."

"Maybe it's from the Angel of the Sky," Kensuke suggested. "Each Angel had a different designation that mattered more than their numerical designation."

"Maybe," stated Takuya, "but it could also be due to the Angels' levitation abilities. Most had the power to float around."

Suddenly, Shinji floated back down onto his bed and stirred from his slumber. His eyes were half-open as he set his feet on the floor and walked around Akira and Hikari…down the hall and into the bathroom before closing the door.

"Sleepwalking to the bathroom," said Toji. "That's gotta be a world record."

"I wish it was a world record," Akira joked sarcastically as they heard water running.

With the sound of the toilet flushing indicating that he was done, they saw Shinji vacate the bathroom and return to his room where he fell back onto his futon.

"Ahh…" He groaned as he awoke, eight seconds later, and saw them looking down at him. "Okay. All of you being in my room…is a little bothersome. Just how long was I asleep this time?"

"It's only been since last night," answered Akira.

"Oh? And…what of Kaworu?"

"After the Quickening, he returned to NERV HQ," explained Takuya.

"And The Demoness?"

"She took off after the Quickening ended. She didn't disclose any hidden secrets last night, but she's not going to stop. It'd be a fortunate stopgap if the only thing keeping her at bay now was her wanting your father to return her choker."

"He fails to understand that he's condemning a lot of people to suffering by messing with her. He still only has two days to rectify his actions before she decides to take lethal action against him. And I'm conflicted about it; while I believe she has every right to want to make him pay for his crimes, she shouldn't be allowed to kill him."

"Someone's gonna try and kill him, regardless," said Toji to him, merely stating the truth.

"True…but it'd be better if it was later than sooner."

"Most don't agree with you, Shinji," Hikari stated; her family was mostly disgusted and angry with his father for messing with this woman that put over sixty people into comas with just her hidden actions alone. "And I stress 'most'."

"Hey, if I could undo what The Demoness did to those people by kicking my old man's ass until he's the one in a coma, I'd do it."

-x-

Those that bothered to come to NERV that morning were surprised to find out who was added to the list of coma victims of The Demoness. It was almost poetic tragedy to know that Ritsuko Akagi and Yui Ikari were the latest victims and Gendo, who was also informed of this update, was enraged that the immortal woman chose to attack his wife.

"It's actually your fault, Ikari," his replacement told him. "You stole from her and you won't return her property. So, in a way, she takes something from you."

"I'll kill her," he responded. "I'll kill her!"

 _I'd like to see you try, Gendo,_ The Demoness uttered in his mind. _Your threat to my very life…is as empty as a corpse that has been embalmed and harvested of their organs…or a house that has been cleared of all traces of its previous occupants. Anyway, your replacement is right. This is your fault. You continue to withhold my choker from me, you continue to lose what your dark heart desires out of your greed and lust._

"You bitch."

 _All the more reason to smear your life until there's nothing about you that the world doesn't know about. Or maybe I should smear your wife and mistress? Should I bring up your less-than-professional relationship with Naoko Akagi? No, I think it's better to see who will be the lesser of extremes against you, Gendo. I wouldn't mind knowing what happens to you._

"I take it The Demoness had a personal conversation with you?" The replacement commander questioned. "If she spoke to me and told me where you hid the choker, I'd return it to her myself personally and apologize on NERV's behalf, that we don't condone these heinous acts."

"I dare her to tell you anything!"

-x-

Rather than put them in a regular hospital, Yui and Ritsuko were admitted to the trauma ward in NERV HQ. Just to show his conscience of crisis, Shinji went to see his mother.

"Somehow, I don't believe your visit here is based on your would-be personal problems with your parents," he heard a woman say to him, and he turned to face Maya Ibuki.

"You'd be right," he answered her, "but as much as I hate them only for what they tried to do, I would never wish this upon them or anyone else. If you hate someone too much, the hate consumes you…until all you know is hate. Why are you here?"

"I felt betrayed by Akagi-Sempai's affair with your father, but like you, I would never wish this on her or anyone."

"You felt betrayed by her? How could she betray you? Yeah, I'm disgusted by the fact that she was with that jerk, that any woman would disgrace herself by being involved with a man as irredeemable as him, but what is it about their affair that makes you feel betrayed by her?"

"I wouldn't expect you to understand."

"I tend to hear that a lot, mainly due to my age or detachment from people. You don't expect me to understand? Try me, then. I want to know why you feel that Dr. Akagi betrayed you."

Maya sighed and stated, "She was with him. Him! Of all people! I looked up to her. I admired her. She taught me everything I know. It's…it's infuriating and disgracing to know what she did. And…now I can't even face her over this."

It was the way she said it all that caught Shinji's attention, the way her eyes seemed with each word spoken. If he jumped to a conclusion he shouldn't have, he'd be embarrassing them both, so all he could do was ask her for the explanation.

"Tell me," he started, "what disgusts you more about this? The fact that your mentor was being used by that man…or that she let her herself be used by him?"

"She let herself be used by him."

"Now tell me if I'm wrong when I ask this simply out of curiosity, because I've read about it in books and seen it in films and televised programs…but do you…have a crush on her?"

"What kind of question is that?"

"A direct question…based simply on my curiosity. I don't judge or discriminate."

-x-

Although it was unnecessary for her to do so, Rei returned to NERV HQ, just to see how the personnel was coping with the revelation that any one of them could be another victim of The Demoness at any time because of Gendo's arrogance…and to look at Unit-00.

"Rei?" She heard her name being uttered, and turned to see Captain Katsuragi on her left in the Unit-00 cage. "You're here."

"Captain Katsuragi," she responded.

"I heard that…you defected from NERV in favor of this woman that has been putting people in comas. The Demoness."

"I did. Why does it matter to you? All I did since then was punch the Fourth Child once. It's not as though I've become a criminal or a traitor. All of the Angels are now defeated, NERV is no longer needed, and the Evas are of no further use, anymore."

Misato was put off by the way Rei was speaking. It wasn't the way she usually spoke; in fact, she hardly ever spoke more than a few words. It was as though she were a completely different person now, reborn or something, acting out in ways that weren't how she used to be.

"It bothers you, doesn't it?" Rei asked her. "It bothers you that I'm not the girl you thought you once knew. It's true, I am not the same as before. Nothing is like before. But I will be honest, I am much better this way. I feel better because of The Demoness and her influence, opening my eyes to the delusion that Commander… That Gendo Ikari had me under for so long. It's because of her that I am changed, that I've been remade, a whole new person, so to speak. Like herself, like the Third Child, his relatives and friends, even you yourself, apparently, I once had strings, but now I'm free."

"Is that how you feel? You feel like you're free? Well, then, I guess congratulations are in order for you. Congratulations, Rei Ayanami."

"Thank you, Captain Katsuragi."

The albino girl then turned to walk away, but stopped at the sight of the Third Child, whose presence was quite the unexpected surprise.

"I wish I was surprised by your presence, but that would be unreasonably hollow of me," he uttered, "but the lyrics of Pinocchio actually come to mind on account of what you just said. I got no strings to hold me down, make me fret or make me frown. I had strings, but now I'm free. You can see there are no strings on me."

"I've got no strings," Rei responded, knowing the lyrics herself, courtesy of The Demoness, "so I have fun. I'm not tied up to anyone."

"Except to The Demoness. My failure of an old man exploited you as his pawn…"

"Until you changed everything with your presence…and I was given alternatives to the fate that disgrace dealt me."

Shinji lowered his head and said, "Not every choice he made was for the good of everyone. In fact, none of the choices he made were for the good of anyone except himself. A man that blames his every imagined slight on a divine force that can't be fully comprehended by anyone, no matter what. All that anyone can truly know is that from one perspective, this divine force has a plan for us, a plan that he no longer wanted to be a part of."

"I was not part of this divine plan. I was part of his plan. I was… I WAS NOTHING BUT WHAT YOUR FATHER MADE ME! But now, thanks to The Demoness, I have the capacity to reject him…and the capacity to evolve, and it's only because you both changed everything."

Rei then proceeded to walk past Shinji, clearly expressing her rage towards her mistreatment by Gendo.

"You think she's going to win?" He asked her, referring to The Demoness and the Game.

"I hope she does win," she explained. "I hope that she kills you. I hope that your parents learn exactly how it feels to lose an only child they were going to sacrifice, anyway."

Shinji sighed heavily and told her, "I think they did lose me, Ayanami…because I lost them a long time ago. I hate them because of their past choices, not because of them. But if they can atone for their crimes, if they can let go of their original desires and accept the way things are now… I could forgive them. I could let go of that hatred. Do you feel hatred?"

"I'm learning to feel a lotta things."

"Then, as Ms. Katsuragi said, congratulations."

"Thank you."

Rei then left, leaving Shinji and Misato alone in front of Unit-00.

"I take it you've heard about your mother?" Misato asked him.

"Yeah," he answered her. "The Demoness didn't attack her to get at me. She did it to get at him."

"But how do you feel about her doing this?"

"Well, that's the thing about right now; I don't really know how I should feel about what she did. Should I feel angry about this because she's my mother? Am I supposed to react negatively because she's my mother, despite her errors in judgment? Should I desire revenge, justice, an explanation to why? You tell me how I'm supposed to feel, please. You tell me."

"Well, you should feel angry about this, like you want payback against this woman."

"Except I don't feel that way. If The Demoness decides to come after me, now that the Angels are all dealt with, I hope it's after she gets her choker back…and I can only hope she doesn't off my disgrace of an old man as punishment for his arrogance."

"You sure you can't just talk to him about the way things are?"

"No. He actually expects me to be present to face her in the likely event that she does decide to come down here to take it back. I'm not his personal protector against her if she decides to make him pay. His fate is in his own hands regarding her."

"You don't fear for your father's safety?"

"Would you?"

In all honesty, Misato wouldn't have been concerned for Gendo's safety; she didn't really like the guy…and saw no comparison between father and son.

-x-

She wasn't the least bit disappointed in his unwillingness to dispose of the Angel and claim his power through the traditional she refused to use against her enemies, but the fact that he was a child immortal that suffered periodic bouts of fatigue with each Quickening he experienced. This was something that made The Demoness see facing the boy a little challenging and complex.

 _Child immortals and their lack of development,_ she thought as she rode her bike across the city to pass the time. _Of course, it's not their fault; they didn't realize they were in possession of such a power until after they were killed prematurely and it takes great extremes just to teach them how to survive in the Game. Shinji, however, gets off easy on account of his young life being fourteen years after an artificial apocalypse and the Gathering. Four years of immortality and being taught about the Rules. I kept away from him because of his obligation regarding these Angels…but now I'm keeping away until I get my choker back. Sentimentality before the path to destiny and defiance._

Of course, her degree of sentimentality stemmed from her goal to reclaim her choker, all she had left of her boyfriend…and punishing Gendo Rokubungi-Ikari to the fullest extent of her brutality for disgracing her by stealing it from her. She would take everything he held most dear to his twisted heart if she had to.

 _I need to get a nice view of Mt. Fuji,_ she decided to do with the time of the day now, _among other things that should be done._

-x-

"…I didn't think I'd find you here, Quentin," Akira greeted the Highlander as she and Takuya found him in the park that afternoon, sitting on a bench in front of his sister and dog as they ran around. "What brings you here?"

"Just Clyde and Gaul needing to be themselves," Quentin explained, pointing to Clyde throwing a ball for Gaul to chase and bring back to her. "How are you two doing?"

"Family drama with members that cause deliberate angst toward others," answered Takuya.

"Your black sheep Gendo still refuses to return The Demoness' choker to her?"

"You know it," Akira expressed. "He actually wanted Shinji to fight her if she comes down to the Geo-Front to take back her choker by force, but Shinji won't go down that path. Gendo can't manipulate the Game to suit his needs, and he'll pay a price for his arrogance."

"But hasn't he paid a price already? I mean, I only heard a small rumor, but isn't his wife in a coma now because The Demoness got to her?"

"It's not a rumor. She did put Yui into a coma; Shinji called and informed us, but this was to make Gendo understand that nobody he cares for or even manipulates to suit his own purposes is safe from her. She can strike at those not protected from her power at any given moment she chooses. I've never encountered an immortal like this woman before."

"The Demoness isn't like any of the other immortals at all. She takes everything I thought I knew about the potential power harnessed by Quickenings…and turns it up to one-thousand…and turns it up even higher. The worst part about her is that we know nothing about who she truly is."

"We need a way to find out about her," said Takuya. "We need to know who The Demoness is."

Bang. A sound, like a gunshot, came, and Clyde and Gaul ran over to be with Quentin.

"What was that?" Clyde questioned, holding Quentin's legs.

"It sounded like a gunshot," Akira suspected, "but who would risk shooting?"

"Believe it or not, after the Angels started showing up, all the street gangs in the city fled and haven't been back since," Takuya explained, so it couldn't have been gangs trying to claim territory or install fear on the streets.

Ring-ring! Akira's cell phone rang, and she picked up.

"Shinji?" She spoke. "What? Shinji, calm yourself. Breathe, man. Now, what is it that they discovered? Oh, Kami. That's not possible."

She lowered her phone and looked at her husband and the MacLeods.

"What is it?" Quentin asked.

"Mount Fuji," she revealed. "It's…gone."

-x-

An entire volcanic landmark, historical in its beauty and age, feared for its potential to erupt once again and spew chaotic energy into the natural world, stripped from the very ground, leaving only a massive crater where it once resided. The fabled and worshipped Mt. Fuji was gone…and nobody knew where.

People from as far as Yokohama and Sapporo were receiving word of the site's disappearance and were outraged by what was viewed as a great degree of both retribution from the gods and disrespect towards the very soul of Japan.

But none of them were the wiser as to The Demoness as she sat on a nearby hill, overlooking the depressing crater that Mt. Fuji once occupied. She sat there with a small smile, not proud of the site, but proud of the impossible act she committed.

 _If you have the means to take what you want without difficulty, it's yours already,_ she thought, looking away at her small, purple pouch at her right side. _Everyone has a right to everything they desire…if they have the means to go along with their will to take it. I took Mt. Fuji…because it impressed me, because I felt I had to have it for my own. It's no longer theirs to have and behold. It's mine now. It's all mine…and I'm not giving it back._

She slowly reached up to her neck, reminded that her choker wasn't there…and it was starting to get to her. There was a moment where she doubted that if she could've taken Tokyo Tower if it were still standing would ease her hurting heart and soul for even a minute. Her good mood only lasted for a few minutes…and her anger, her pride, her very drive to reclaim what was given to her long ago returned.

 _Gendo…_

-x-

Ten seconds. That was how long it took to realize how a volcanic site as Mt. Fuji was no longer around. And for NERV, it was something beyond rationale due to the impossibility of it all.

"How is this possible?" Misato questioned.

"If I knew," Shinji responded, "I'd be able to explain the impossible."

"There's no geological indication of an earthquake," said Shigeru, going over the geographical survey data they had.

"It's not an optical illusion," added Hyuga.

"So, ten seconds ago, it was there, and ten seconds later, it's just gone?" The replacement commander asked. "Is this Angel-related?"

"I doubt it," went Shinji; his reason for such being that he defeated the last Angel and there was no indication that there were no Angels beyond the ones encountered. "This is something else entirely."

"Care to share what you think it is?"

"I have no idea what this is."

-x-

"…Could it be a sign of the world coming to an end?" Hikari asked Shinji, as they, Toji and Kensuke met up at the child immortal's apartment later that evening, just under half an hour before The Demoness began her daily telepathic broadcast to the world disclosing secrets.

"It's not the end of the world," Shinji assured her. "There are no more Angels left to fight. No other threats to mankind that seek to invade cities or towns. There's no Judgment Day yet."

"If The Demoness claims your head, then it will be Judgment Day," expressed Toji.

"Even so, the world will not end, just the way societies operate in the world…but yes. Yes, that could happen if she wins the Game."

"But she's so focus on getting her choker back, she's ignoring you now," Kensuke reminded them.

"It doesn't change the fact that the Game is still in play."

 _Good evening again, people of the world,_ they all heard The Demoness now. _Quite the day we had out in the world, huh? Since I saw something quite spectacular last night, I decided to spare you the secrets of others, but now I'll divulge you on many things. But before I do, I'll rat on something I did today to make myself feel better for a short while. As some of you are aware, Mt. Fuji has disappeared off the face of the country of Japan. I did that. I took Mt. Fuji because I felt I had to have it for my collection. Over the years of my nomadic life, I had developed a_ _…_ _compulsive hoarding disorder and kleptomania. What can I say? I have been_ _…_ _left unfulfilled for a very long time, and material things can only do so much to substitute what is truly desired. Oh, how I wish I had Tokyo Tower for my collection. You Japanese have such remarkable constructions that took a lot of bravado and imagination to build. Unlike NERV._

 _So, she took Mt. Fuji,_ thought Shinji, bewildered at how someone like this woman was capable of taking an entire landmark.

 _However, if I told you how I did such an act, that would be telling,_ she continued. _But don't fret about it. Surely, one way or another, things will work out, even in a country as ravaged as Japan and struggling with its population issues. I know that there are dozens of scientists out there that could do great good for the world if they had the means and resources to do so. You could have cleaner air, cultivate desert wastelands and live underground. The future has so much potential, but only in the proper hands_ _…_ _with the proper guidance_ _…_ _even a handful of you foolish, careless men and women believe that sometimes to take a step forward requires taking a step backwards. Not exactly why I chose to punish Gendo Rokubungi-Ikari by putting his wife and his former second mistress into comas, but he's getting under my skin with his stupidity and arrogance. Who's up for knowing who's fooling around with who_ _…_ _and who's stealing money from those that have blood on their hands? I'm definitely interested in exposing criminals like the Yakuza and Triads._

She went on like this for two hours, an hour longer than normal, revealing names, addresses, underlings, getaway routes and hidden safe houses, bank accounts, credit card numbers. The Demoness exposed various members of the two criminal organizations of all they were, without any degree of fear or hesitation. There was no stopping her from spilling the beans or selling anyone out.

"I'll say this about her," said Takuya to them. "She's got balls."

"Balls of steel," Kensuke agreed with him.

"I think she could turn the entire planet inside-out, and all she'd really care about is getting her choker back from my father," Shinji expressed.

"One more day," Akira stated. "All he has is one more day before the consequences become severe."

… _Of course, none of this matters to you at all, does it, Gendo?_ The Demoness asked. _In your mind, everyone with the sole exception of your wife is nothing more than a blight upon your world. Though, you've been this way since before your daddy, due to his own fears of putting his family, including your disgraceful hide, in immense danger, walked out on you to protect you from the world he was forced into against his will without any warning. Of course, nobody knew about this because you're a man that believes talking about oneself makes you weak and dependent upon others, like a child that needs their parents around to help them navigate the ups and downs of the world. That didn't stop you from trying to invade the personal lives of people that, despite not even having it all, had it all in your perception. You felt only contempt towards others that chose to smile, to laugh, to express themselves without any reason to do so, whether they knew you or not. Why, you even violated the privacy of your own son to see what made him happy, just so you could try and end it and make him feel as miserable as you often do. Hours and days worth of emails, pictures, chitchat over the mediocre things that people take for granted. Until you decided you no longer needed much of a reason to feel contempt towards them, towards the unseen force you call God_ _…_ _except for being excluded from their lives_ _…_ _simply because you chose to be. Why? Because the world you feel you thrive in is no different from a blank canvas or an empty room, deprived of what they have, what you want. Yet, you blame them all for your imagined slights, and the majority of them don't even give a damn about you or most others they don't know. Everyday, even after Second Impact, you grew to hate them_ _…_ _simply for laughing, smiling, trying to have fun, trying to express their feelings, to understand their friends and families, to be caring and humane, unlike yourself. Yes, you blame them. Yes, you hate them. How dare they exclude you from their happy world without even trying to, without even meaning to? How dare they infuriate you by announcing to the world, in all their collective silence, in all their unseen smiles and unheard laughter, that you weren't even part of it? You see, people, this man that hates you as a whole, including his only son, couldn't allow any of you, regardless of your distance, regardless of your race, profession, age or language, despite the fact that many of you didn't even have so much as a simple conversation with him, to get away with your simple lives, your days of content, not even your absent moments of joy, so, as Second Impact, a disastrous phenomenon that he helped to cause, began, he viewed it as a great fire being set to the world that didn't want him, people and all, and smiled as it all burned down to the very foundations, leaving you to struggle over your attempts to rebuild and adapt. Now, I wonder, are Gendo's unseen tears for the fact that I've exposed him for the monster, coward and failure of a person that he is? Or are they just for the twisted god complex that he has to fill his own sad, empty and worthless life with?_

It was unlike anything she had ever said about Gendo before, but everyone hung on each word uttered.

Shinji, having to retire to his bedroom, claiming that he was tired, felt like his eyes were yanked open by this discovery being retold from a grander perspective. To know that his old man hated the world and everyone in it, with the sole exception of his own wife, even when it was his choice to be exempt from that world, was a heavy blow he had to get around. Especially after the fact that everyone across the planet heard it.

 _Do you have anything to say in your defense, Gendo?_ He heard The Demoness ask his father, and soon realized what was to be expected. _Anything you wish to share with me?_

 _You old bitch! You pathetic, stupid, old bitch!_ He heard his father yell, infuriated by her. _I hope you do come after me! I hope to see your face contort because I'll never return your piece of shit choker you obsess over! You'd have to pry it from my cold, dead fingers!_

 _Is that really what you want? You want me to kill you? You want me to end the only life you have to either ruin your future or absolve it of its list of crimes you committed? It's a simple turnabout you know can be within reach: Return it to me…and you get to enjoy what little life you have left to live…or I will not hesitate to throw you to the wolves and watch them pick the meat right off your carcass._

 _Then that's something you'll have to do, because I will never return your stupid, worthless choker that I could sell on the black market for a mediocre yen! Screw your mercy! Screw you!_

 _Oh, you did, Gendo. Believe me, you did. And believe me when I say that I will show you the god you blame for your imagined slights. Not only that, I will send you to the god you blame…just so you can ask them why they punish people the way it's written in that overused book. The way I've been able to understand it over the years I've endured, in your world, people just like you believe that this being of absolute power and perfection, a man of divinity, has the first, last and only say in whatever happens, that he is the one that gives and takes. Heh. God giveth and God taketh away. That's the world you live in, but you see, in the world I once resided in, there was no such thing as a vengeful deity…and the only demons that existed…were the very people that used to be equal to the gods until they decided to play with life itself in unforgivable ways that led to despair. And the very woman that gave me life…lacked the balls to ask for my forgiveness before I condemned her to her fate._

Now, this was something Shinji found disturbing. The Demoness proclaiming in her own way that she didn't believe in deities representing vengeance and that people back in her past were demons where they used to be incarnate gods. To him, it was almost as though she viewed people as the ones that were the creators of every evil that existed, not any demons or devils known throughout history.

 _People who believe they can change the world for the better, but mainly do so for the pursuit of pleasure and profit, are ill-suited and inadequate to be viewed as even deities of a lesser extent, Gendo,_ she told him and the world. _You…are unworthy of any divine status…because you are a lowly worm. Your son, however, may his soul soar high into the unknown, despite his own faults, none of which are even his fault, is a worthy example of one that could grasp godhood…but doesn't want it at all, accepting his place in the world. He's more of an honorable man than you will never be. And what will likely be another great regret…is his head falling after yours._

-x-

In his cell, Gendo didn't think twice about The Demoness' threat to behead both he and Shinji. He doubted that she could lay a finger upon him. However, knowing that she attacked his wife to spite him was the last straw, not revealing his contempt to the world and everyone in it. If she came fore him, he had every intention to do away with her and make sure she stayed dead.

"Go ahead, you old hag," he uttered in the darkness. "Come and get me."

-x-

The next morning was the most quiet that Shinji had woken up to. Somehow, he had found himself walking the empty streets of the city, not seeing anyone present.

"Hello?" He called out, but all he got was an echo. "Where is everybody?"

"Gone," he heard her voice answer him, and he turned around, seeing her sword at the ready, prepped to decapitate. "You and I are all that's left."

SLASH! The Demoness swung her blade…and off came Shinji's head, rolling at her feet.

GASP! Shinji awoke, reaching for his neck, feeling his head still attached, and finding himself in his room, panting from the surrealism of his nightmare.

He grabbed his tanto beside him and held it to his chest.

 _She terrifies me,_ he thought, admitting it to himself his fear of The Demoness. _And that bastard has officially provoked her to the ultimate extreme. Must I really go against my own conscience and protect that man from her?_

He got up and walked into the kitchen, seeing Akira standing with the house phone in her left hand. There was a look of concern on her face that he didn't like.

"I don't like that look on your face," he told her, getting her attention.

"That was Takeru," she explained. "He's really upset about what was found out about last night. He was asking me what I think might happen if she fully intends to go through with her threat on his black sheep son's life."

"And as I woke up this morning, I was pondering whether or not I should leave him to his fate. I hate my father, there's no denying that…but not enough to want him dead. Yet if he gets killed because of some other person due to some trouble he caused, will it be a weight upon my conscience?"

"Everything will eventually become a weight on someone's conscience, Shinji, for better or worse. You have to decide how much you'll be weighed down by it all, whether it's the weight of a dime…or the weight of a brick."

"I'd like for the guy to just pass away from natural causes instead of murder, yet nothing goes the way you wish it would."

"Nothing ever does."

"Damn it all, sometimes, just sometimes, I hate my moral compass swinging north when it should swing east or west or even south. I feel like I'm constantly the good guy here."

"Heh-heh. Yeah, you are sometimes. But you're not perfect, you know. You can't save everyone."

"Nobody can. That's impossible. Still, you can't balance out the world without the fatalities of life and death. All one can do is try to save the people they care about the most."

"It's one of the many things I love about you, Shinji. You have such a caring heart. You don't hide your feelings or anything."

"You remember when I told you that Ms. Katsuragi tried to compare me to my father? I felt pushed by her to snap when she kept trying to do so, and I ripped the bolted table up and threw it aside, venting."

"Nobody should ever be compared to the people that aren't them. You're your father's son, but I see no traits you could've gotten from either your parents."

"Thank you."

-x-

This time, The Demoness only attacked a handful of people that wind up in comas. The rest were victims of a much worse fate. And she made sure that the police and other service agencies knew that it was her and why she did so.

Gendo had clearly forced her to cross a line that resulted in the murders of the leaders of the SEELE organization after he made it clear that he wouldn't return her choker. But the way they died was freaky; there wasn't a clean method of murder in the world that caused the back of any person's head to bust open like a bomb going off. Even his replacement was appalled at this discovery.

 _People are going to be after this bastard's head if she doesn't get to him first,_ he thought, opening the door to Gendo's cell. "You clearly have a knack for pissing off people. The Demoness murdered the Committee and just so that you're kept in the loop, eight different people this morning tried to kill your wife just for being married to you. Their only excuse being that this Lady Devil will probably take compensation for her stolen choker in the form of your wife being slaughtered. So far, nobody's made any intention on going after your son."

Gendo looked at him and said nothing.

"Fortunately, however, I refuse to let NERV get involved with this unnecessary madness you created, so right now, you're being removed from this facility and returned to your apartment. After that, you're fair game."

"Fair game?"

"That's right. Whoever wants a piece of you is within their right to do so."

"So, just because the old men are dead, you're throwing me to the wolves?"

"No, you threw yourself to the wolves when you decided to mess with this woman who is clearly not one to mess with. I've seen the footage of her taking out one of the Angels, and she's a force to be reckoned with if she's able to attack people without laying so much as a finger on them. She clearly lives up to her name, something you could stand to do for your wife's family, since it seems like your son's not going to. The whole 'sins of the father' thing shouldn't be reflected upon the son."

Then three guards came inside and grabbed Gendo, dragging him out of the cell.

"You really think that getting rid of me will keep her from coming down here?" He asked them. "She knows where her choker is down here, and she will come down here for it! She will do whatever she has to in order to get it back!"

 _And if she does, anyone she harms, their blood will be on your hands because it was you that stole it and hid it,_ his replacement thought. _I'll have to keep the personnel safe from The Demoness, if my name isn't Henka Suru._

-x-

The streets were empty, just like in his dream, only more depressing for Shinji as he rode his bike down the road. While he could've let Akira or Takuya drive him around, the boy felt it might've been better for him to just take his bike and clear his mind.

"This feels worse than the life I never lived," he told himself, looking at how even the small convenience stores were closed. "Only the world hasn't ended."

"Maybe it won't end," his spine felt the shiver that only that voice could cause. "At least not the way you saw and prevented."

He turned to the other side of the street…and saw The Demoness on a bike of her own, looking at him.

"Oh, don't worry," she told him, "I'm not going to do something stupid, like chase you down the road or behead you. I'm getting things in order for when I meet your father. This is his final day…and we both know he brought what's going to happen on himself."

"How can you be so calm about this after all you've done?"

"An eternity can do that to you. Besides, I had to remove all other obstacles that stand between me and the future I have planned for the one. And once I regain my choker, all that will be left standing in my way…is you, Immortal Ikari."

"Those people you didn't put into comas… They were people that could influence the world…and you killed them to ensure that you wouldn't be hindered."

"They weren't even innocent. I've been in their minds, and their intentions were just to become gods by annihilating the rest of the world. That bull's been done before, many times over, and it's never permanent. It's just something repeated over and over again, with different generations."

"And you couldn't leave them to the police?"

"They own the police. People with power like them, they use the police like hired hit men. They can start wars for petty reasons. They were the reason men like Caesar and Hitler fell from grace when they became corrupted. To them, people's lives were like nothing but a game…and they created corruption just to see how manipulable people are. It was nothing but a game to them, and they just became the latest losers in their own game."

"And you can't simply focus on the Game we're involved in?"

"The Game is ever shifting, despite the Rules remaining the same. It only applies to us when we face one another, but we're not bound by the rules of any society or government. As immortals, we may do as we please, depending on our own sense of judgment and what have you. Of course, you have a natural curiosity to question everything, which is one of the good things about you that hasn't been tarnished yet. All I want to know from you right now is…are you going to stand in my way of taking back what your bastard of a father took from me? I can tell you're rather conflicted about the upcoming situation's climax."

"As much as I hate him, I can't have his death on my conscience."

"You mean, you don't want to be held responsible for his death. Except you wouldn't be held responsible for his death. Not in any way one can be held accountable for anything that goes wrong that they took no direct involvement in, biblically, figuratively, metaphorically…or literally. If one buys into that nonsense about the sins of the parents being carried by the children, it is never true. Most children are simply…are simply the byproduct of their parents' sins, meant to correct their mistakes instead of doing it themselves. I kept looking into your parents' minds, seeing all that they intended, how far they were willing to go, and neither one is able to be absolved of their sins…and you can't save them from the greatest of damnations awaiting them, even if you wanted to."

"If they're going to be pariahs for the rest of their lives, then that's their problem, but it's easier to let them live until sickness and old age takes them out, not murder and hatred."

"People are already gunning for your daddy's life. You can't protect him from everyone."

Shinji was about to say something else when he stopped himself to consider a different possibility. So, as he inhaled a new breath, he calmed himself and pointed to her.

"If you got back your choker," he started, "if I bargained for that idiot's life to be spared…would you consider it?"

The Demoness leaned forward on her bike as she gazed on Shinji.

"I would think about it," she responded, "but it would be up to fate, and your old man has written most of his down."

Shinji then turned his bike to his left, intending to end this conversation with the woman, as there was no point to carry on.

"One way or another, we're both victims of the Game because of our more disgraceful relatives, Immortal Ikari. Unlike you, however, I dispose of the ones that dealt me wrong, whereas you simply renounce them for their sins. Because of your unique situation, you try to find the path of least resistance and conflict. You're not bitter or cynical from living so long. But sooner…or later…one of us must kill the other to resolve the biggest issue that exists between us. I could easily take control of the world and decide how things will be…but without the Prize, the control wouldn't be absolute. I have plans for everyone, but until the Game is won, none of those plans will be realized. But I have time. I have all the time in the world…just like you do."

The boy then took off and left the woman alone, trying to escape the brutal weight of her words. He feared that even with the power of the majority of the Angels inside him, The Demoness was still too powerful…and only getting stronger…and more dangerous. The only logical explanation for this was the power behind the Game; it was influencing the both of them, either subtly or immensely, pushing them to finish what was started long ago. The more they either tried to disregard or ignore it in the pursuit of other interests, the harder it pushed them to finish it.

If the Game were a person, a face, an enemy, not just an obstacle for both of them, it was probably the greatest one of them all.

-x-

Thrown out of NERV like garbage, Gendo frowned as he got up off the ground and walked away. Everything he sacrificed for, everything he worked for, taken away, just like that, and all because of his son that prevented any hope for a Third Impact and this would-be demon woman that exposed all of his secrets and hurt his wife. At least NERV permitted him the right to visit his incapacitated wife for two hours a day.

The people that bothered to step outside of their homes looked at him, all angry, disgusted and viewing him as a complete monster, not the woman that exposed him.

"You're a bad man!" A little girl yelled him. "That lady's going to get you!"

"You disgrace!" An elderly man with a can added.

A police officer walked up to him and uttered, "You have no idea how much satisfaction I'd get from arresting you…but why deny The Demoness the right to get rid of your worthless life? I'd like to get a front row view of your death."

He looked at them, and they all had that same look that invoked rage and hatred towards him for his crimes, his arrogance.

"A man who has no love for his own child is a man doomed to hatred by his child," an elderly woman informed him. "Everything and everyone you touch suffers from your cruelty and contempt towards the world. Everyone you hurt will be rewarded with the promise of you getting hurt, many times worse than they were."

Gendo walked away down the street.

"You can run, but you can't hide from her!" A little girl yelled at him. "There's no country, no city, no closet where she won't find you!"

And the sad thing about it was that the kid was right. The Demoness was unlike any person he had seen before, and she could strike at him at any time…and he'd be completely defenseless.

-x-

The city might've been saved from the Angels, but it might as well have been wiped away from existence. As Shinji look out at the city from atop a hill used as a recreational area, he sighed over how things seemed to be spiraling out of his sense of control because of his father's arrogance. Right now, for him, the only thing worse than the Angels, Third Impact or even the possibility of an army invading the Geo-Front and murdering everyone was The Demoness being the one pulling the strings and deciding everyone's fate.

"What am I going to do?" He wondered aloud.

"Your old man got kicked out of the base after what was heard last night," he heard Misato's voice behind him, and he turned to face the woman, whom he didn't even hear approaching in her car.

"It looks like my current predicament has dulled my sense of hearing to the point where I didn't hear your car engine."

"This woman has half the world wanting him dead and the other half wanting her to be the one to off him. I'm part of the half that wants him dead now. What of you?"

"As much I would like for him to pay the ultimate price, he should be allowed to die a natural death."

"So, you're going to defend him? After all that he's done, all that he's allowed to happen?"

"What do you want me to say? I have morality issues; everyone wants you to do something you're not comfortable with doing, but you want only to do the right thing, and it creates friction."

"And what is the right thing to you?"

"That he dies from natural causes, old age and sickness. Maybe alongside his wife, maybe alone somewhere, but at least knowing that the world will be better off without people like him. Or maybe have him take his own life when he reaches his breaking point. At least his death won't be on anyone's conscience, knowing that he was more of a monster than the monsters we want to believe are the worst ones we see."

Misato could now see that this kid would rather not have any personal deaths caused by others on his conscience, maybe because he didn't want them to feel like they were his fault or because he probably could have done more. Whichever reason it was, this was a kid that could do without the stress of the situation getting to him.

"If it's any consolation to your previous obligation, your father's replacement thinks you should be thoroughly compensated for defeating the Angels," she decided to tell him.

"I'll accept compensation from the issues with the Angels after I deal with The Demoness," he responded. "One thing at a time."

-x-

NERV HQ was being torn up inside-out to find that accursed choker Gendo took from The Demoness, but finding it was easier said than done. It seemed that wherever he hid it, it was so out of sight that it might as well have been out of mind, which meant that the chances of The Demoness creating havoc for the people down in the Geo-Front was an absolute that the agency couldn't ignore.

"Damn it!" Henka Suru shouted, standing over the scattered papers of old research in Gendo's office. "Where did you hide it, you depraved bastard?"

Everyplace from offices to the MAGI themselves were either checked, stripped bare or cleaned out, but no one could find the hidden choker. They were beginning to grow more concerned over the situation Gendo got them in when he decided to mess with the woman. Even if they had anyone questioned on the whereabouts of the trinket that clearly meant a lot to the deadliest immortal, it wouldn't change the fact that their former boss had condemned them to an inevitable fate.

"I should've capped his legs so he'd have to crawl out of here," uttered Shigeru to his fellow Bridge Bunnies during their lunch break.

"You and me both," added Hyuga. "What the Hell was he thinking…if he even thinks at all? He was crazy to try and screw with that woman."

"I'm gonna kill him," went Maya, which surprised them to hear her say. "He's meddled in the lives of enough people."

"We should really let The Demoness kill him," Shigeru suggested. "Why deprive her of the right to play the executioner?"

"I'm with Shigeru," said Hyuga in agreement with him. "Let her kill that asshole."

"At least let me cut off his testicles," Maya expressed; she wanted to make Gendo scream before he died because of his arrogance.

-x-

Making mental notes on the size of the city and the size of the Geo-Front, The Demoness, sizing up the situation, decided to broadcast that afternoon to the city to inform them of what she aimed to do.

 _Good afternoon, people of Tokyo-3,_ she started. _As I'm sure many of you are aware, Gendo Rokubingi-Ikari has made his choice, and I will deal with him, but I need all of you to know something that won't hurt you, but will maim the streets. People can sometimes be such flares for the dramatic. You probably don't know much about NERV, except that its primary base is under your feet…and now I'm going to raise it above ground, Geo-Front and all. All I ask of you…is that you hold on tight to something bolted to the walls of floor for at least a minute or two. I have a femme fatale side to me, but I don't want you to die because of what I'm about to do…and not you, Gendo. Not yet._

She could tell through her power that people were tense over what was to happen. She didn't blame them; she had been tense herself at an early age…a long time ago. But this was something that had to happen, not because of the beliefs of any ancient prophecies or talks of destiny…but because she was angry, and needed to resolve this matter in the most extreme way imaginable.

 _Better to be ruled than to be reduced to meaningless energy,_ she thought, truly grateful to Shinji for destroying all possible routes to achieve the Human Instrumentality Project that would've just left all but the immortals alive on the planet with all the remaining animal and plant life destroyed. _That's not a life for anyone, just an inescapable prison that lasts for a few centuries. Time to raise the underground facility that is the Black Moon of Lilith to the surface._

She raised her arms up, concentrating on the underground cavern that was much larger than the whole region due to its massiveness. Over the millennia, in addition to the numerous Quickenings she had amassed, she found ways to augment and concentrate the energy increase of each one that was added to hers, intensifying the power she possessed and accessing other abilities that humans could only dream of having…only greater than what they could possibly imagine.

The ground began to rumble, indicating an earthquake, but one that would be as efficient as possible.

"The Earth moved…to set free from its body an unwanted cancer," she uttered.

Crack! The ground in front of her cracked open cleanly, leading towards the city, splitting with each block like a series of grids.

-x-

The alarms in NERV rang like crazy as the artificial roof of the Geo-Front fractured into grids and the ground shook.

"How is this possible?!" Shigeru yelled, holding onto a safety bar on the wall.

"This is crazy!" Maya shouted, on the floor.

-x-

"No way," Shinji expressed as he and Misato saw huge sections of the city blocks rise into the air. "This…isn't…happening."

Not even Misato wanted to believe that someone, especially a woman unlike any other that has been known throughout history, was actually capable of such an extreme phenomenon. But she was witnessing this with her own eyes.

As more city blocks levitated into the air, more of the natural terrain shifted, as if being forced away in an expanding ring of dirt. Nobody could do anything for anyone as something big and black began to emerge from the ground.

 _I reveal to the world one of its greatest and most dangerous secrets that is no longer necessary to the fools that dare to exploit it,_ they all heard The Demoness' voice again. _The Black Moon of Lilith, the so-called primordial source of all known life, including us humans. Now, it's just an eyesore. This was never meant to be part of the Earth…and now you know the depravity of the people responsible for luring the so-called messengers of God to your city and everything. But fear not. The world isn't ending, anymore, so you need not fear returning to this cold, dark place against your will._

As the Black Moon emerged ever so steadily out of the ground, proving that it was as massive as the entire region itself, Shinji began to experience further memories belonging to his original self in the life he himself never lived. In his mind, the Black Moon was part of the reason there wasn't much of a Tokyo-3 or Japan, just a large crater where it once resided for hundreds of millions of years due to the shifting in geography and tectonic plates. He could remember how countless lives left on the planet either surrendered or were forced to return to the metaphorical egg as he was being manipulated on all sides of the line, either smiling in deceived revelation of the ones they loved the most or screaming from the intrusion of a strange girl they knew nothing about. Even his original self had been deceived, but he himself was not that young man that was abandoned by the people that were supposed to matter, so he wouldn't be deceived by anyone masquerading as someone he loved the most…because there wasn't a single person he loved more than others; by keeping his relationships equal, he had zero chance of being manipulated into surrendering his life to an empty promise of unity and peace.

"Just how big is this thing?!" Misato questioned.

"Big," he told her, "and terrifying."

Only one minute had gone by, but it felt like an eternity as the Black Moon was now halfway out of the ground, surrounded by the floating city blocks. Eight seconds later, the blocks farthest from the dark sphere began to fall in place where they were ripped from the ground, but were forced to fill in the empty space that was made by its removal, becoming slanted. Twenty seconds following this, occupying much of the sky above, the sphere seemed to have its own degree of gravity, keeping it afloat as the rest of the city blocks returned to the ground. After the second minute passed, Tokyo-3 had been maimed and sunken in by The Demoness.

-x-

Taking a minute to catch her breath from the exhilaration, The Demoness, on her palms and knees, her wings spread out in the air, chuckled at how much exertion it took her to raise the transport vessel of Lilith.

"But do I want it for myself?" She wondered aloud as she got back up, her wings disappearing. "Having it would make my collection even more immense and invaluable, but that would also make it somewhat depressing. And it'd be an incomplete addition without the White Moon of Adam. People these generations, never appreciating what isn't replaceable until it's gone forever."

With the Black Moon now situated in the air over the country, the world would know. They would see, hear and read about it until they couldn't forget its existence…unless a force greater than herself could force them to.

"There's no news like new news," she spoke, walking back towards the reconfigured city.

To be continued…

A/N: I meant to have Gendo and The Demoness engage in another verbal battle, but I guess that'll have to be in a later chapter. Were any of you surprised that The Demoness did that? I'm actually surprised that she could and would if necessary.


	22. You have no power

Creation began on 04-20-18

Creation ended on 06-05-18

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Immortal Ikari: You have no power

Somehow, even though the city had been reconfigured due to its removal and reinsertion after The Demoness raised up the headquarters of NERV, which was just a giant sphere that now occupied the sky, water, gas and electricity were still being distributed throughout the buildings. This made it so that the streets were lit up when the sun went down.

"I don't like this," said Akira, pacing back and forth in the living room in front of Takuya and Takeru, periodically picking up her sheathed katana and putting it back down on the table. "It's been six hours since he left out and Shinji hasn't called."

"He's okay," Takeru uttered. "The Demoness wouldn't lie and go after him just yet. She wants her choker back, which puts Gendo at the top of her list. But this move she did today… How does this fit into her endgame to do that?"

"Unpredictability, maybe," suggested Takuya. "Still can't believe that thing was underneath the whole region. It's not something you see everyday. Not ever."

"And she just brings it up to the surface," Akira sighs.

Click. The sound of the front door opening and the scuffling of small feet came.

"Akira, Takuya, I'm home," they heard Shinji call out, sounding like he had bad experience outside today. "I'm sorry, I kept meaning to call to say that I was alright, but every time I held up my phone, I couldn't stop looking up at that eyesore The Demoness brought up."

Akira saw him walk through the kitchen…accompanied by Ms. Katsuragi, which was a surprise for the three adults.

"Missus Rokubungi," Misato greeted, bowing her head. "Mister Rokubungi, Mr. Nagisa."

"Miss Katsuragi," Takeru greeted back. "You were with Shinji all day?"

"Yes."

"And you both saw that phenomenon."

"How was she able to do that? It's not possible."

"The life of an immortal is nothing but impossible," Akira stated. "But, yes, this was the most impossible that has ever been attempted. I've heard stories of places being…relocated or even rearranged, but this goes beyond what might've been based on actual fact. I don't believe even The Demoness was initially capable of this."

"Could it be due to her defeating the Angel that Shinji was supposed to?"

"If so, that just made her stronger," Shinji expressed. "We were both fortunate that we still had access to our apartments."

"If The Demoness wanted to lock us in or out of our homes, she would've probably leveled the whole city and be on her way," Takuya added his assumption on what the deadliest immortal could've done.

-x-

It was a nightmare for NERV HQ, realizing that they were on a moon-like body that now floated in the air. With no means available at the moment to get them back to Earth, the personnel were stranded on a dark sphere.

"I pray that The Demoness kills that bastard soon," Shigeru sighed, wishing he had returned to his crappy apartment in Tokyo-3 when he had the chance to, looking down, or rather, looking up at the ground above him.

"What the heck is going on here?" Hyuga gasped, looking at his screen, seeing something that caught his attention. "It's…The Demoness."

"What is she doing?" Maya questioned, looking at her co-worker's screen. "How is this possible? What is she?"

On the screens, The Demoness was seen, flying towards the base with these massive, wondrous wings, looking like some sort of angel, carrying something that looked like a roll of rope.

"Is she an angel?" Someone asked. "A real one?"

As she got closer, the personnel could see that the rope The Demoness possessed was leaving a way to the Earth. Was she anchoring the Black Moon to the Earth? Or was she giving them a way to escape?

-x-

"…This thing has its own gravity?" Kensuke wondered as he, Hikari and Toji looked up at the Black Moon from his apartment's patio.

"If it weren't for the fact that it's dark, I'd say that it's almost beautiful," Hikari expressed.

"And she ripped it right out of the ground," added Toji, holding onto his left side; earlier today, he lost his balance and injured his waist. "Any chance we know where she is?"

"Nobody's out there looking for her," Kensuke informed them. "But we all know where she's going to be tomorrow, and it's going to be major."

"After Shinji's father for her choker. Then, she's going to murder him outright." Hikari stated. "How do you suppose Shinji's taking all of this?"

"Most likely, he's angry with his old man," Toji suggested. "We've met the guy once at that dinner get together, and he was every bit as what Shinji had said he was. The Demoness calling him disgraceful just solidified into a cold truth…and then being outed to the whole world for the jerk that he is."

"Do you suppose Shinji would let her do it?" Kensuke asked them. "Do you think he would let The Demoness murder his father?"

"It's possible, but Shinji seems too much of a moral individual to let anyone murder his father," Hikari told them. "He'd most likely try to talk The Demoness out of it."

-x-

"Oh, please, spare me your desperation," The Demoness told the NERV personnel that saw her set her feet on the Black Moon and anchor the rope and install zip cords to it. "If you could actually kill me with bullets, you'd likely go down in history for doing so and obtain great wealth for the rest of your lives."

"What are you doing here, then?" Maya asked her.

"Making sure this place is as empty as possible…for when I deal with Gendo."

"Why here?" Shigeru questioned. "Wouldn't it be easier to just…"

"Oh, it would…but then where would the exhilaration and effort be if I didn't? If I do it this way, it's a goal that truly delivers the just rewards. Nothing is ever truly given unless it's unconditional and without strings. My choker was given to me…and that bastard took it from me. He won't give it back…so I will take it from him…with as much of anything else that he has to lose. Now…how many of you are desperate to get off this black rock?"

She manifested her wings again, giving off an angelic aura to the men and women that saw her do so, and took off, leaving at least ten zip cords.

"Sharing is caring," she uttered, implying that they would have to take turns on who would leave and who would have to wait their turn to leave.

-x-

"…Shouldn't you be checking up on Pen-Pen to see if he's alright, Ms. Katsuragi?" Shinji asked Misato, but then realized that he had just let slip information he wasn't really supposed to have.

They were all in the living room trying to sort out their personal feelings over what happened today when Misato looked at Shinji.

"How'd you know about Pen-Pen?" She responded.

"Please, he knew about him before you two even met that day," Akira sighed, not bothering to hide anything. "You ever believed in premonitions, alternate timeline theories, alternate dimensions, deviation in causality or any other possibilities revolving around changing the past to reshape the present and future of any given situation?"

"Okay, you just lost me," Misato stated.

"Alternate forms of existence…means alternate realities…where things that didn't happen…did happen…and vice versa. Say in one life, Shinji didn't move in with you, thereby never meeting Pen-Pen…while in another life…"

"He did move in with me…and found out about Pen-Pen."

"Your only roommate is a genetically-modified penguin adapted to live in warm water that you saved from euthanasia because the place you used to work at before NERV was done with him," Shinji divulged the knowledge that she never told him or anyone else in this life. "Believe it or not, there is only a handful of things about you that I do know to be true that you don't really say to people, depending upon how much of an alternate universe is the same as the so-called original universe. We both hate our fathers, yet your father saved your life when Second Impact started. Your mother divorced him when you were little…and you supported her decision to do so. The guy neglected you both in favor of his work. You drink more Yebisu than anyone else on the planet, you're an indecent slob on your days off, and you used to date a guy over seven years ago when you were in college…and you don't want to know from me what you did with him for a whole week in your dorm room."

Misato went wide-eyed and felt embarrassed by this kid. Not only did he know about her alcoholism and laziness, but he knew about Kaji and their sordid history together. He knew…yet kept it to himself.

"Okay, say that…I choose to believe you… What happened in some other universe that you say is the original one?" She chose to ask him, which made him ball up his right fist. "What was the outcome?"

Shinji sighed and answered, "Well, in the original universe, I looked my age and wasn't so small. But in the original universe, everyone dies or experienced something worse than such a fate because the world came to an end."

"So, people die or suffer as the world ends? Sounds like a nightmare you'd just wake up from."

"It's not a nightmare you'd just wake up from when everyone you know is either taken from you against their volition or your own…or they just eighty-six you and you're left alone and unable to move on, even though you want to, like you're damned by some other force that masquerades as something divine…along with your own, pent-up emotions that have gone negative and leave you desiring the one thing that you feel will set you free from the illusions of peace and happiness that were never true."

"That…sounds like someone who's gone mad…and went through something so bad that they've become numb to everything."

Shinji nodded in the positive; he wasn't sure how much he had discovered of his original self, but he could ascertain that the primordial Shinji had become suicidal and Hell-bent on one thing above what was left for him to go after…and what he wanted most…was for his story to reach its final chapter and be done with it all. In many ways, it was similar to the undesired immortality he had…and would've done nearly anything to get rid of just so that he could escape the possibility of having to live alone. The only difference between these two incarnations…was that the original's world ended and he went crazy…while this world's boy, who's physical growth had been deliberately stunted by an unloving relative on his mother's side in an attempt to kill him, had saved it from the Angels and the handful of people that wanted to commit mass genocide in their pursuit of godhood, spiritual unity, or just to remake the world the way they wanted.

"I really think you should let The Demoness kill your father, Shinji," Misato told them. "No offense to you, Mr. Takeru Nagisa."

Although he had some measure of scorn on his face, Takeru sighed and uttered, "None taken, Ms. Katsuragi. Gendo made his bed. He should sleep in it…even if it means she's the one that tucks him in for the final time…if it ever comes to that."

"We'll know tomorrow," Shinji sighed.

-x-

Gendo was fortunate enough to get back to the base's trauma ward to see Yui, despite the fact that most of NERV had vacated the place.

"You should cherish every last moment you can with her," he heard The Demoness' voice as he turned to face the window where a view of the city could be obtained, seeing the immortal woman sitting on the sill, looking at the couple. "I can barely contain my joy at the thought of making you pay."

"Why don't you just do it right now?" He asked her.

"Because I'm not really here," she answered him. "I'm getting things setup for tomorrow. You won't be able to escape from me."

"You ruined everything I've worked hard and sacrificed for…all over a piece of jewelry?"

The Demoness frowned as the temperature dropped by a substantial degree.

"It's not just a piece of jewelry," she spoke, her wings manifesting behind her. "It's my piece of jewelry bestowed upon my neck by the love of my life that was taken from me in almost a similar way as what I did to take your wife and second mistress from you. Of course, you care nothing for Ms. Akagi, just like how you cared nothing for her mother. I could've killed her instead of put her into a coma, but she's not on the list of people out to ruin the world with intention…unlike you and your wife. Her, I could kill right now with a mere thought, just like I could make you take her life against your will. It's within my capabilities. People commit murder-suicides all the time. But the Immortal Ikari would know I did you both in, so I won't lay a finger on his deceitful mother. I'll just focus on you for now."

"What do you see in that brat?"

"Everything I don't see in either of you that were supposed to be his parents. An echo of myself from when I was innocent. Someone that wasn't interested in making waves in the ocean flow of the world, that didn't have any dark aspirations or unlawful ambitions or wanted to change the world or ruin it. But then you, his…parents…if that's what can be called of you…came along. You follow some bogus prophecy and cause extensive genocide to the world, sending half of it to Hell and making plans to do away with the other half years later, and how did the Immortal Ikari fit into it all? He was your gisei, your little lamb you were grooming to be sent to the slaughter. You thought you could manipulate him to do your bidding, but his unexpected induction into the Game saved him from you both…and he found a way to use his newfound status as an immortal to his advantage. He turned from you and put an end to your plans before they could even begin. I really would commend him for his efforts and congratulate him for doing what others older and smarter than him didn't consider doing, which was to save the people like an actual hero."

"You admire the brat?"

"I admire his morality and determination. He is a warrior…untainted…by pride, lust, greed…or any other delusions of insanity. He understands honor, tries to be merciful, gives his adversaries a chance to walk away so that he doesn't have to fight them to the death if it ever becomes necessary, values his friends and loved ones over all else. To him, perfection and power are undesired, insignificant. While you're fueled by bitterness and a need for vengeance against an unseen, unheard deity, your only son is motivated by love and friendship. He would gladly give up eternity if it meant he could grow old and die with the people closest to him. But you, you would trade mortality and humanity for divinity and absolute authority if it meant you could be in control of everyone…even though you have your wife restored to you…because it's not enough for you…and will never be enough."

"And you want this so-called Prize for yourself?"

"Well, you can't have it. You don't deserve it. The Prize goes only to the last of the immortals left standing, the one with their head still held up. Yet you think you can have it all to yourself because you think it will be all that you need. Well, bad news for you, which I'm happy to say, the Prize is beyond your reach…and will never be within your reach. Ever. It's either your son…or myself that will obtain it. And all you will have…is a bleak future left with strife and empty promises of redemption. But fret not, for I will grant you a peasant's death."

"Not if he kills you first."

"Oh, he won't. He's conflicted. You might be his father, but he wants nothing to do with you beyond the ties of blood. The only other conflict of interest is that he doesn't want your death on his conscience. He is still a little boy, after all, sensitive over the issues of life and death, the balance between them. If he can't save the world for everyone, he wants to at least save those that matter most to him…which doesn't include you two, your blood ties be damned."

"You're saying all of this to spite me, aren't you?"

"Hardly. There's nothing left about you to spite to the world. I've disclosed every last bit of information on NERV to the public, from the dangers of piloting the Evas, the endangerment of children and their mothers after Second Impact, the inhuman development of the Dummy System, even the wretched origins of Rei Ayanami, who has abandoned you the same way you abandoned Shinji. Now she thinks very little of you and wants nothing to do with your former scheme, which is a dead-end. Maybe you should hear from her yourself."

Then, beside The Demoness, a young, albino girl appeared in the room.

Rei Ayanami, now dressed in a yukata that seemed unlike her usual attire. It was blue with white tigers on the back and sleeves. On her feet were zouri-based sandals and tied on her left hand was a flower-themed pouch bag.

"Rei," he spoke up.

"Save it," she retorted. "I'm not the same as before. I'm actually better this way under The Demoness' wing. I'm rid of my servitude towards you. I'm free."

"You're free? You merely traded one leader for another."

"She has plans for the world, plans I wish to be part of as a person, not as a pawn."

"You have no future, no matter whose side you're on, Rei!"

"You're wrong about that," The Demoness expressed. "In your mind, she was just an artificial construct made from the flesh of the Seed of Life known as Lilith, meant to house her soul or a part of it, and following that, she was meant to serve as your means to achieve your reunion with your wife and obtain divinity. But now, she isn't your artificial construct. She is not Lilith, either. She is simply Rei Ayanami. She's like everyone else that exists in this one: One of a kind. A complete original."

"I still have spares."

"Oh, you mean, my sister clones?" Rei questioned. "Those spares? Is that all they are to you? Is that all anyone that isn't your wife is to you? Just spares? Were Dr. Akagi and her mother just spares for you in your wife's absence? The Demoness is right, you know; I am not your artificial construct…and I will not continue to be your puppet to exploit. I believe your son's eradication of Lilith and the Angels…and my own defection from NERV have proven that much."

"And what plans does she have for you?"

"A future where nobody is expendable, where everyone can belong, and where nobody's out to destroy the world or the people that live in it…like how you were going to. Fortunately, though, her plans don't include your existence. So…you should cherish every moment you have left to live."

Then, she was gone, just like that, leaving him alone with the immortal woman.

"For all your life's value, the only good thing you've done is providing me with, perhaps, the only immortal left in the Game that will give me a run for my efforts when I face him," The Demoness told him. "If you want to reconcile with him while you still have a chance to, I'd recommend that you do so before the sun rises. Japan may be the Land of the Rising Sun, but tomorrow's going to be the day you breathe your final breath when I take back my choker. Beg for your son's forgiveness and maybe there's some hope for you…because your irritable nature has reminded me of one of the worst people from my own past…and they were a major pain in the heart and soul."

"And who might that be?"

"My mother," she uttered, sounding much darker and harsher than earlier. "Who was the only family I had that deserved to die the most for betraying me. She reminded me of the one crucial fact of life that applies to you, as well: The one bestowed with the power…is stronger than the ones that have none. And you have no power, Gendo. Your son has power, your father had power that he gave to his only grandson to be free from eternity, but you, you're powerless. You thought you were in control…but now your control is gone. You've been dethroned, stripped naked, harvested of your organs and put to pasture. I'm just going to make sure you're laid to rest with the trash."

Gendo frowned as she disappeared from sight, leaving only the fact that she would return to lay claim to his life…and he couldn't escape from her, even if he tried.

-x-

"Shinji?" Akira spoke, entering Shinji's room, seeing in his futon. "Are you still awake?"

"Yeah," she heard him respond.

"Hey, just do what you think is right, okay?"

"I got it."

As she vacated his dark room, Shinji still had a difficult time trying to come to grips with his personal demons over the upcoming situation. He didn't want to come between The Demoness and her sense of justice…but he didn't want his father to die of unnatural causes, no matter how much he might've deserved it or how much he or others hated the jerk. Maybe he was going crazy, maybe the memories he inherited from his primordial self's universe were starting to affect him, psychologically, or…part of him that was still the child his parents left alone to pursue their ruined goals still lingered in him. He wanted to leave them to their fates, but he wanted them to pay the price for their sins over time and let them go slowly, naturally, into that quiet night.

"How is he doing?" Takuya asked Akira as she returned to the living room.

"He's in conflict over what he thinks has to be done," she answered him. "He just wants to do the right thing, which is different for everyone."

"What do you think he should do?"

"Personally, whatever choice he makes regarding his father, I'll support him. You?"

"Honestly? Putting Gendo in solitary confinement for the rest of his days wouldn't be so bad."

"Life or death, morality or immorality, loyalty or deception. Shinji has to make choices that go beyond the ones a teen normally has to make, which seem cruel to force on any young child, regardless of who they or their parents are."

"I wish we could do more for him."

"Me, too."

Back in his room, Shinji had drifted off into sleep…but found no peace there. There was only the pain of the past he didn't experience personally that belonged to the original Shinji Ikari. A city wiped off the face of the Earth, the blue waters and green grass and brown soil reduced to blood-red and barren wastelands, respectively, and not a single person in sight. To be left alone in such a place would be absolutely no different from being condemned to a living Hell, only full of solitude. And the worst part of this life before any of this had happened…was the heart-wrenching, soul-piercing scream that came out of his teenage self's mouth when he saw nine, white harpies in the air, feasting on a red behemoth and its female occupant.

 _I'd go crazy, too, if this life happened to me,_ he thought, looking away as his other self had lost what was left of his sanity and succumbed to madness because of a redhead's unwillingness to be kind towards him beyond the soft caress on his face, leading him to kill her without any reasonable capacity for remorse or guilt when she spoke the words used to condemn him.

"We'd all go crazy if any part of this became our own fate," he heard someone say to him, and he turned to face…a guy that looked like the original Shinji…but paler and dressed for a Japanese funeral, and wearing several weapons and wielding a sickle in his right hand that was wearing a gauntlet that read, _"DEATH"_.

"Who are you?" He asked him. "Are you me?"

"I am you…but I am myself. We're all the same person…but shattered and scattered. A reflection of the original version, warped into different individual lives spanning across countless forms and infinite levels of existence."

"He speaks the truth," the immortal Shinji heard someone else say, and saw the guy he saw in a previous dream, wearing the ripped shawl and having the cybernetic arm. "At least from a universal point of view."

"A universal point of view?" He asked him, suspecting that this man was an older incarnation of another version of the original Shinji.

"Reality is broken," he turned around and saw a little girl of maybe six years of age, dressed in golden armor that seemed reminiscent of the _Witchblade_ comic books for some reason, only not as provocative or fake, with blue eyes and waist-length, ebony hair. "But no life lived by any of you is a falsehood existence. The young man in the most unrelenting agony may be the original version, but each of you are still him, just as he is each of you…and none of what we've gone through…or will ever go through…changes not this undeniable fact that we know deep down."

"What fact?" He asked her.

"That like each of you, he is in intense pain…and needs our help to be free of it…and his soul saved from the poisoning darkness he has gotten lost in," she explained.

"But…what if we can't save him?" The pale version questioned her. "What if he can't be save? What if he doesn't want to be saved?"

"Everyone wants to be saved," the immortal Shinji uttered to them. "Anyone that tells you, otherwise, for one reason or another, even those that have been damned by others, simply don't or can't believe that it's possible to save them. Have any of you been saved before?"

"I've saved my Shinji," the girl revealed to them. "He was dying of an artificial cancer. Our family, a bunch of unrelated men and women, united by my mother, a timeless woman with control over the four elements of the world, had me to save him from his undesirable fate. He ended up being my nephew in my life…and the love of my life, despite what others thought, said or believed. If I can help save the original version, I will stand with those of you that choose to do the same."

"I was stranded for a time in another universe," the man in the shawl revealed of himself. "A world where the Earth hangs in the night above all. There, the Eva became a benevolent force for the people that were being attacked by a great beast as punishment for the sins of their ancestors. I lost an arm and much of my heart, but I gained a life that was worth having while there. We saved a country reborn from the ashes…and prevented the end of the world we once resided in do that the people who remained could have a future. My greatest joy out of all of it…is my family, whom I would fight for to my last breath…and will see again after saving one more life."

"I was damned before I ended up where I currently am," the pale version explained. "My parents abandoned me, and the people that I was entrusted to gave me nothing but misery…until words spoken by my aunt in that life shattered what little sense of sanity I had left, sending me down my bloody path. My greatest sin is the sin of violence born of rage and vengeance. I murdered most of the Ikari family, those that hurt me, taken the lives of more than two-hundred others that came between me and my revenge, caused pain and suffering to those fortunate enough to survive my fury…until I finally got what I was after in life and succumbed to my declining life force. I spent a long time in the darkness of my personal patch in Hell…but it was in this Hell…that I found my redemption from a goddess that came for me and the man that was my twin of that life. An eternity in Hell turns to a purgatory existence as a member of a four-man group under Heaven to restore the world. In the end and to this very day, I went from being a lost soul whose very life was no different from the Hell I send those that do wrong to, with no chance of getting into paradise…to being a lost soul brought back to save others from the Hell that awaits the world unless prevented."

"A man who was trapped in an inescapable purgatory…to a man who is set free by that same purgatory after finding a way to escape," the immortal boy realized.

"Yes."

-x-

The very idea of wearing anything other than the choker her boyfriend gave her was a grand insult to his very memory in her heart. Even with all these other jewels that she had collected and hoarded away over the ages, The Demoness didn't have it in herself to wear any of these fancy necklaces of gold, silver, ruby, emerald or diamond. No, even if she had all the jewelry in the world to choose from, unhindered by other women of history and legend, all being offered to her…she would still want the one jewel that was taken from her by that bastard Gendo. Holding a glittering, jeweled necklace in front of her as she stood in front of a mirror, the woman sighed as she cast it aside and felt the skin on her neck.

"Tomorrow, the sun will rise," she told herself, "and you know what must be done. You know what you have to do, The Demoness. Go down to NERV, reclaim what is yours…and kill the man that wronged you so that he knows that he can't escape from his fate."

She turned away, grabbed the hilt of her sword that was wedged in a large pile of gold coins and other jewels, and walked towards her goal to rectify the situation that was the present absence of her choker.

-x-

The morning clouds over Tokyo-3 dissipated as the sun rose upon the buildings and trees. The streets were like the day before: Empty. Nobody came out to do anything.

That was how The Demoness needed this to be for her attack on NERV. And the force she brought with her to ensure her justice was a massive one to get the job done with certainty.

 _This warning message goes to those still present in NERV,_ she broadcast her thoughts toward the Black Moon above her on the streets. _Today is the day that retribution is to come for Gendo Rokubungi-Ikari. But I offer those not involved in the theft of my choker this one mercy. If there are those of you…that don't want to suffer…you have thirty minutes to vacate the premises before I unleash the brutality of the JSSDF upon you and you become a casualty of a vendetta._

Thirty minutes was all that she would grant them. Half an hour to wait for the scattered mortals to flee from the egg that once carried Lilith, half an hour to let it sink in for Gendo that he was about to meet his accursed maker for all of his crimes like those before him. It was often the waiting that forced many in power to wonder why they did what they did at all. Waiting for death, waiting for their next day of life, maybe even waiting for an absolution that rarely ever came to those in wait of it.

 _And if one of you could be so kind as to disable Gendo in at least one of his legs so that he can't run away, I'd be most grateful to you,_ she broadcasts again.

-x-

Those that bothered to come to NERV at all were gathering to vacate the base as fast as possible before The Demoness attacked. While a handful of those that came wanted to do as she requested of disabling Gendo before they fled with their lives.

"This is all because he wouldn't return that choker of hers," one of the men frowned as he chambered a bullet in his pistol.

"Two or three bullets in his legs should be enough to cripple him," said a female worker to him and two other men that came to the medical ward. "To think that he was one of the people responsible for what happened fifteen years ago, and just because he hates everyone around him… People like that deserve everything they got coming to them."

"The real victim of this arrogant prick is his son," expressed another man. "He's better off without his old man trying to screw us all over."

They approached the door to enter the medical ward, but the locking mechanism was jammed on account of a rewritten access code required.

"That bastard," the third man uttered in realization. "He's only delaying the inevitable today."

"Get back, I'm going to shoot it off," the guy holding his pistol informed them, raising said firearm up.

Meanwhile, inside the ward, Gendo was trying to move his comatose wife to a safer location; if he could get to one of the shelters or safe rooms within the base, he could hold off some of what was to come. If The Demoness truly had the JSSDF under her control, then she had an army of trained killers to call upon to do her bidding and eradicate NERV in order to reclaim what was hers.

 _You should've just left your wife where she was, you fool,_ he heard her voice in his head again as he pushed Yui's bed into an elevator. _You're just putting her in harm's way. Unless she did something to wrong me, she'd be on the list, too. But you're the only one that has a hit out on your life. You're just going to make the deceiver an unnecessary casualty._

"Be silent, hag!" He yelled.

 _Oh, I'll be silent…because you won't see me coming until after it's too late for you._

-x-

Misato knew it was pointless to try and stand up to The Demoness, which was why she didn't show up at NERV when she woke up this morning. Instead, she took Pen-Pen with her to the apartment building of the Rokubungis. Unfortunately, she hadn't even gotten to the elevator of the building when she saw the only other immortal that remained, bringing his bike out of the garage.

"Shinji?" She called over to him, and he looked over at her. "What are you doing?"

He set the brakes down on his bike and approached her.

"Isn't it obvious?" He questioned. "As much as I hate my father, I can't let anyone kill him, even if he does deserve it. What he deserves…isn't always, necessarily, what he should get in the end."

"Aren't you afraid of this woman?"

"Yes, I'm afraid of her. She invokes fear every time she talks to you, looks at you, makes you feel like she's become your greatest, darkest dread, all your fears dwelling within her, waiting to come out and terrify you further. Standing up to her works to a degree, but she's still intimidating enough with whatever else she's capable of."

"But she's not going to come after you until after she takes back her choker, so why not just let your father face the consequences for his actions?"

"Remember how you once tried to compare me to him?"

"You kept stressing that you weren't anything like him."

"He wouldn't raise a damn finger to help save anyone, not even when there was a chance to do so before things got worse. He just wants to find ways to benefit from something terrible, to gain something that only gets him what he wants, not what others may need. I am not like that; if getting her choker back ensures a chance of reviving her coma victims because of his arrogance, that's a risk I must take because some of those people, whoever they are, whoever they were, didn't deserve what that bastard drove her to do to them. He wants to continue screwing with a woman that can screw him worse than the traditional screwing between men and women, that's on him, but he is not going to be the end of those people that didn't have a choice because of him."

Suddenly, Pen-Pen jumped out of Misato's arms and waddled over towards Shinji; the boy and penguin were almost of equal size, with Shinji being a few inches taller than him.

"Yawk!" Pen-Pen squawked at him, raising his right wing in front of them.

"Nice to meet you, too, Pen-Pen," Shinji greeted him, accepting his wing. "That's a good grip you have there. Misato treats you right."

Pen-Pen nodded in the positive as Shinji returned to his bike.

"Just wait until you hear back from me," he told Misato as he took off.

-x-

The thing about the rope and zip cords The Demoness used to enable the NERV personnel to vacate the base was that using them felt like fighting against gravity due to the way the Black Moon's gravitational field worked. To get from the Black Moon to Tokyo-3, you had to zip line like like you were trying to get out of a building and touch the ground, and to get from the city to the base, you had to do the same. Each time they did either one, they had to be careful not to injure themselves. So far, only fifty-nine people came back to NERV and were made to leave again before things went from bad to worse…and not a single one of them were going to die because of Gendo.

"Is that everyone?" Commander Henka Suru questioned as he saw the last three personnel members touch the city streets.

"Only that bastard and his comatose wife are left there," the woman told him.

"And only two minutes left before the attack. Everyone goes homes or to a friend's house. Get off the streets and out of sight. Do not confront The Demoness."

Everyone fled the vicinity where where the rope was anchoring the Black Moon to the Earth…and two minutes later, The Demoness showed up, looking at her Apple Watch on her right wrist, seeing that thirty minutes had officially passed.

"The wait is over," she uttered to herself. "No more patience except for reclaiming what is mine, no more chances to rectify what was done…and no mercy to he is without mercy. Gendo is just another obstacle in my way to the ultimate goal…and like all my obstacles…I resolve them so that they never linger any further."

Behind her were several men in dark uniforms of military themes, equipped with firearms and ammunition you could only get from the military powers that be.

"You all know your target," she told them, having enslaved their minds to do her bidding, setting down several more zip cords. "Do your duty…and tear the stronghold down."

-x-

Looking down from the rooftop of a building nearby to where the rope that anchored the Black Moon to the city was located, Shinji saw The Demoness and dozens of soldiers going towards said sphere. But what he saw of The Demoness was shocking. Manifesting behind her on her back were these massive, angelic wings, white as the snow he never saw because of the changed weather conditions in Japan, he saw the immortal take flight towards the sphere, leaving the soldiers, all trained killers that swore an oath to protect their country and its people, to take the rope to the other end.

"Father, you're about to meet the full wrath of the woman that carries the Devil in her soul," he sighed, realizing that if he was going to do the insane and save his old man, he'd have to get to the Black Moon before The Demoness got to him.

-x-

Opening the vault in the secret shelter inside Terminal Dogma, Gendo took out the new bane of his existence that would cost him his life.

"So much trouble over something so insignificant," he uttered, looking at the choker of The Demoness that seemed to emanate said woman's rage towards him.

 _Oh, nothing's ever so insignificant, you poor fool,_ he heard her in his head. _Wedding rings, necklaces, earrings and other such mementos of the past are meant to be cherished by their owners until their lives cease…and beyond the veil of life. But you seem to disregard the significance of your gold band that you cast away from your hand. The bond between man and woman in holy matrimony is among the strongest that you took for granted alongside your wife. Once she up and let herself be consumed by the purple demon that you exploited your son to operate against the children of Adam, you sullied your bond with Yui by having your affairs with Naoko Akagi and then going after her daughter like she was prey for you. Your gold band is dulled by your shameful nature that it's worth nothing but the blood you will spill to try and survive the inevitability of your own end, one way or another. You dishonor your wife's family and name just as you dishonor your father and son. You reek of shame, and that will lead me to you beyond the stench of your twisted, black heart._

And as he heard those words, the feeling of her rage towards him seemed to emanate further from her choker in front of him.

He quickly closed the vault and picked up his pistol; he intended to make sure he killed her himself to make sure she didn't kill him.

-x-

Staying out of sight of the JSSDF was one thing for Shinji, mainly due to his pint-sized body, but getting to the Black Moon was another matter altogether. So long as there were soldiers zip lining up to that sphere, he couldn't risk being seen by them from within the city.

"Oh," he gasps as an idea came to mind. _I need to get on the Black Moon from outside the city!_

He got on his bike and drove back through the building to make it outside onto the streets. The sooner he was outside the city limits, the sooner he could get to the Black Moon.

-x-

As the soldiers ran down the halls to secure the facility, The Demoness stepped foot into Central Dogma's command center, seeing the throne that Gendo used to oversee everything and everyone like a false god. To be at the top of the mountain while everyone is forced to look up at you was not something that she felt was deserving of this disgrace…and neither was having access to a supercomputer system named after the so-called wise men that visited the alleged mortal son of a deity that sacrificed him to the wolves once he was all grown up. No, The Demoness felt that this supercomputer trio was better off being used by someone else that could handle the pressure of possessing such knowledge and solutions without endangering the lives of those who needed a better future. Someone like herself.

"I guess I have to make sure that nobody can use these without my permission," she uttered, reaching into her dress pocket on her right leg and pulling out a small, green and gold disc.

She threw it at MAGI Casper and watched as the whole set of supercomputers became enveloped in a blue sphere of pulsating energy. They then started to compress and shrink, being severed completely from the flooring as their wiring and circuit boards were separated from the whole of the chamber.

It was just like before with Mt. Fuji…and any other place or structure that The Demoness found she wanted for herself. Over the ages, she saw castles, statues, vehicles and other things and spaces that caught her interest, up to the point where she chose to take them, starting her on the path of obsessive hoarding. Although she had collected resources from her former home, she would find other resources that, while generations below the ones she already had, could still serve a purpose to her plans.

 _Hmm_ _…_ _I wonder what the Immortal Ikari thinks I'm going to do with his father,_ her mind wandered off for a moment as she left the chamber with another item to add to her collection. _Whatever it is, I just want to know so I can do something_ _…_ _worse._

-x-

A mile outside of the city was probably the most Shinji needed to get to the Black Moon.

"Okay," he told himself, still on the road, looking up at the sphere. "My Angel-based Quickenings better ensure that I get there."

He held on tightly to the handle bars of his bike, revving up the engine, never taking his eyes off the eyesore that was the former transportation vessel for Lilith. Memories of his brief battles with the Angels of the Sky and Might echoing in his conscious mind, his body aglow with their combined powers surging through him.

ZING! He shot like a bullet towards the Black Moon, looking as though he were riding an invisible roadway that led him there.

 _I wasn't ready for this here!_ He thought, seeing the NERV base within view.

He rotated his bike as the destination got closer.

 _Who gonna pray for me? Take my pain for me? Save my soul for me?_ He found himself wondering…just in time as his bike's front tire made contact with the ground. _If this were a Godzilla flick, The Demoness would be the King of the Monsters while I'd be the Pretender to the Throne, Zilla._

He revved up again and rode towards the metal pyramid.

-x-

"Stop," The Demoness told the soldiers with her in the hall before they got inside the elevator. "Sever the cables and take the stairs."

She had felt the presence of the boy and knew he was still conflicted about protecting his old man and letting him face the consequences for his sins. Even so, she still wanted to know what he thought she was going to do to him in the end…just so that she could do something far worse to him.

 _If only he knew what he was thinking before he made landfall on the Black Moon will eventually become song lyrics in three more years,_ she thought, removing her sword from her tube case. _Even in the past, that was a good song to dance by._

As she grabbed a cable and jumped into the elevator shaft, the deadliest immortal descended down the dark hole to wherever it ended. The Demoness knew that if this were a race to Gendo, she was already in the lead while the Immortal Ikari was in second place, even on a bike.

 _Why are you here, boy? There is doubt that you'll even save the prick from me._

 _I gotta do what I gotta do, The Demoness,_ she heard him say to her. _If getting you back your choker keeps you from killing him, then that's what I gotta do._

 _Your morality is one of your strongest traits. It may get you killed one day. But not today. Try your best to do what you gotta do. The results may not be worth your efforts._

 _The only way for evil to succeed…is for good people to do absolutely nothing to stop those that spread it. I will do something to stop you._

She'd be lying to herself if she didn't expect the Immortal Ikari to try something to keep her from murdering his father. If he could, that would save her some time dirtying her hands with the fool.

-x-

"…This thing's ugly," said Kensuke to Toji and Hikari as they stood outside the hall of the Rokubungi apartment, referring to the Black Moon. "I knew it was ugly when I saw it the other day, but I never said it out loud before."

"The dark side of the moon," Toji stated.

"Why is that?" Hikari asked him.

"Nothing can be seen on its darkened surface."

Hikari rang the bell and waited for a response.

"Rokubungi residence," went Takuya's voice. "Who is it?"

"Hikari, Toji and Kensuke."

"Oh, just a moment, please."

The door opened and they greeted the man.

"I take it you three know that Shinji has gone to try and save his father?" Takuya asked them.

"Nope," Kensuke told him and Akira as they sat down in the living room. "But knowing Shinji, he'll try his best to keep his old man alive."

"But won't The Demoness…" Hikari spoke, but didn't finish her question.

"Shinji will do his best to evade her fury," Toji expressed. "If in doubt, pray he's able to get her to do one of the things that we're all susceptible to in various ways."

"Which is?" Akira asked him.

"Reasoning."

"I thought you were gonna say 'bargaining'," said Takuya.

"He'd have to have her choker to be able to bargain with her for his father's life."

Everyone sighed at how that idea seemed impossible for Shinji on account of two reasons: Shinji didn't have the choker…and The Demoness was not likely to be susceptible to bargaining.

-x-

He rode past the soldiers, but none of them even tried to shoot at him, which made Shinji suspect that The Demoness was being one-tracked over what she wanted them do. Either that or she just wanted to be the one to stop him herself. He had to assume it was the latter.

 _For once in your pathetic life, old man, just be reasonable,_ he thought as he reached the cage housing Unit-01; his intention was to use it to damage as much of the place as necessary to get to his father and use necessary force to make him surrender the choker.

 _We both know that deadly force will be the only thing that will resolve this matter,_ he heard The Demoness say to him.

"Awaken…and do my bidding, Unit-01," he told the Eva…and its eyes flashed on as its head snapped up. "Move…towards where I need to be."

-x-

Gendo felt the base rattle as the danger got closer to where he hid. He could hear the sounds of explosions, gunfire, and structural damage.

 _It is inevitable,_ he heard her voice, and the noise outside the shelter ceased. _I'm already less than halfway to where you are, Gendo. I'm going to take back what is mine…and you will lose more than you bargained for when you chose to cross me._

There was a silence that lasted for about a minute or two, and then another explosion shook the base.

"You hear that sound, Gendo?!" He heard her again, out loud and from a distance. "That's the sound of your end approaching as I come for you! The inescapable fate as your final chapter is being written!"

He raised his gun up at the sealed door, taking aim.

"I will get you! I will kill you! You're about to meet the Devil incarnated within a woman!"

The base shook again, but this time the shaking was consistent. It was like something was moving.

"The Eva?" He wondered.

-x-

This was definitely the power of the last Angel Shinji was demonstrating. But it was a different variation of the power Kaworu once possessed. While the former Angel of Free Will and Alternatives had the ability to influence the actions of any Evangelion made from the salvaged remains of Adam so long as his soul was the dominant one, Shinji was now able to project his influence over Unit-01 as if he were actually inside it. He had literally made the Eva his remote control toy.

As he rode further down the halls and down a flight of stairs, the Eva was tearing away walls as it moved towards Terminal Dogma, the only place within the entire base that was the most fortified due to once housing Lilith.

 _The only thing worse than he thinking he has control over this situation,_ he thought as he felt the presence of The Demoness becoming more imminent to his own safety he was disregarding, _is he thinking he has power over the outcome when he doesn't have the power to defy the fate he's going to be dealt with for his arrogance. You have no power, Father. One way or another, you will be forced to understand this in an inescapable fashion. You…have…no…power._

To be continued…

A/N: I decided to complete this chapter because it's my birthday, even though I'm treating it like any other day. Another year older is another year of life either obtained or wasted. I don't resent the frailties of mortality, but do any of you ever feel like you don't have enough time in your lives?


	23. You brought this upon yourself

Creation began on 06-05-18

Creation ended on 06-14-18

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Immortal Ikari: You brought this upon yourself

It all happened so fast that Gendo had no time to react. The heavy duty door that kept the soldiers out had been ripped off its hinges by The Demoness, who looked like an angelic being when he saw her wings manifest behind her. And then the crashing sound behind her as much of the very floor was ripped away by the emergence of Unit-01, creating a dust cloud that obscured its body.

"Father!" He heard his son's voice, and the buzzing sound of a motorcycle came to a halt. "I can't prevent your doom unless you tell me where her choker is! Forfeit the item so I can return it to her, and you might walk away from this!"

"I don't need you to protect me from her!" Gendo shouted at him, and raised his gun at The Demoness, aiming for her chest. "You're dead, you old hag!"

BANG! He fired at her…and she blocked with her sword, sending the bullet to the floor.

"Bullets," she uttered as three soldiers ran into the room behind her. "How primitive of you. The second you discover the potential in gunpowder, you start thinking about waging wars against other countries. Did you know gunpowder was invented in the Ninth Century during the Tang Dynasty of China? It was used in the application of fireworks. Of course, that's ancient history people of today know about from past records. My first memory of fireworks was when I was four years old. They were quite spectacular, but there was no comparison between those of the Tang Dynasty…and the ancient civilization I had to abandon after my first Quickening destroyed the supercontinent and created the land masses you're familiar with. And your history is flawed when it comes to both geography and geology. What you think happened over one-hundred-seventy-five-million years…actually happened less than one-million years ago. Time just got sped up and matter decayed enough to fool generation after generation of those that took the path of science into believing that it took millions of years to occur rather than tens of thousands of years."

"What?!" Shinji spoke, appearing from the smokescreen with his tanto unsheathed. "Just how old are you, anyway?"

"Oh? Heh-heh. Less than eighteen-thousand years, Immortal Ikari."

"Impossible," went Gendo. "There is no way that anyone, even someone like you, can remain unchanged after such a long time. As a human, you're subject to evolutionary outcomes."

"Shows what you think you know. Now, considering that your son doesn't want your death on his conscience, no matter how much you deserve whatever you have coming, I'm willing to be lenient on your life. Just return my choker."

"Go to Hell."

The Demoness frowned as she looked at Shinji.

"Maybe he needs a little incentive," she suggested, deciding to take the boy's efforts into consideration. "I can provide plenty of that."

"Aah…" Yui's voice went, and Gendo turned to face wife, seeing dark veins under her skin, mostly on her face and hands. "Aah…"

"What are you doing?!" Shinji demanded; if she was threatening his father with his mother's life, this was too far.

"Overstimulated nerves can cause intense discomfort," she explained. "You see, Gendo, right now, your wife's body can't tell if it's in extreme agony or extreme pleasure. To it, they are one and the same. But I will make things worse for her. I've versed myself on every layer of the human body and its weaknesses. For example, did you know that hypersensitive nerves in a body that's active causes pain to the person when they move even the slightest degree? Like raising an arm or being touched?"

Then, as if to prove a point, Yui raised her left arm up into the air, screaming from the pain inflicted upon her.

Gendo fired again at The Demoness, but she blocked with her sword again.

"I thought you loved your wife, Gendo. Isn't that why you did everything you did? Out of love? Is she no longer worth your devotion? Is love nothing but a distraction? Pity. I guess you deserve to lose her."

But Shinji couldn't bear to see his mother suffering because of his father.

"Damn idiot!" He shouted, and threw his tanto at Gendo, hitting him in his right shoulder, sending him to his knees as the boy ran over and grabbed him by his neck, dragging him towards a wall. "Nobody's fuckin' playin' with you, you stupid bastard! Hand over the damn choker, or so help me, I will cut your balls off and feed 'em to you before I cauterize your injuries to keep you from bleeding out! You hear me?! Where is it?! Where IS it?!"

"Release me, boy," he uttered, refusing to be intimidated by either this woman or his own son.

Shinji grabbed his tanto hilt and pushed the blade further in.

"Aaaaurgh!"

But then Shinji noticed something under his father's glasses. His eyes were looking away from him, towards the wall behind himself.

"Even she knows where you hid it, but you're not man enough to do right by anyone," he realized where the item was hidden, and slid his father across the floor to go to the wall.

"Don't you dare!" He yelled at Shinji, trying to raise his gun up. "Stop!"

Pierce! Something small and sharp struck Gendo in his left shoulder.

It was a shuriken, shaped like a winged throwing star with serrated edges.

"I don't think so," The Demoness told him.

Shinji formed his energy blades and struck the wall, cutting away two sections of it, revealing a square indent, holding within it the very object that The Demoness went to extremes to reclaim.

"Stupid ass," he called his father, jumping up and grabbing the choker. "You made her do every sense of crazy, even murder people that had nothing to do with what you did…just to throw her off her game when all you've done is make her play more dangerously with you! I should let her kill you, but then I'd be the one killing you. So I want to make a deal with you, The Demoness!"

"You really think she's even capable of being bargained with if I wasn't willing to make a deal?" He retorted; there was no way he believed that anyone, especially The Demoness, was capable of being bargained or reasoned with.

"And you fail to see why the Immortal Ikari is many times greater than you could ever hope to be, in this life and the next life," The Demoness told him. "What is your bargain, child?"

"You get this back," Shinji stated his terms, "and he gets to live out whatever days he has left. Whoever else wants a piece of him are entitled to their pound of flesh from him, just so long as he survives. That's all I'm asking of you. No…that's all I'm begging of you, The Demoness. Do you agree to my terms? The time to decide is now."

The Demoness sighed and accepted his terms. It wasn't just because she wanted it back so much, but because the boy, despite not really giving a damn for his old man's life, was desperate to see him live for the rest of his days until such a time came where he would be punished to the full extent of the law. If life behind bars or the death penalty was to be his fate, then that was to be his fate, and the boy wouldn't fight it.

"If he tries something like this again, I will make him suffer the full force of my wrath," she uttered, nodding her head. "I accept your terms, Immortal Ikari."

Shinji sighed and threw the choker to her, and she caught it with her left hand.

It was hers once more, back with its rightful owner. The metallic strands unfurled and slithered around her limb as they made their way to entangle around her neck, reforming into its goth-like motif where it had been ever since she first received it from her boyfriend.

"Ah…" She exhaled, feeling like she was whole once again. "You have no idea how at ease I feel to have this back. It's a piece of my past that has the greatest of value to me."

Gendo frowned at the pair as the soldiers accompanying the woman turned to leave the room; now that The Demoness had reclaimed her choker, she had no need for the JSSDF any further and was sending them away.

"Another day, Immortal Ikari," she told Shinji, turning to leave herself. "Another day."

As she started to walk away, Shinji felt some ease as this vendetta was finally at an end. He felt as though he could finally breathe right again.

But Gendo… Gendo couldn't allow her to walk away. He couldn't let anyone other than himself win whatever situation they were involved in. Taking up his gun, he aimed at her back.

"I don't need your mercy," he yelled, and pulled the trigger.

"No!" Shinji gasped, but it was too late.

The bullet had been fired.

Ding! It hit the choker on her neck, but bounced off, undamaged and its wearer unharmed, but crossed.

As The Demoness turned to face Gendo, Shinji knew right then that it was hopeless to even try to defend his father's actions…and looked away.

"You fool," she called Gendo. "You know not your place and not what your choices will result in. Now suffer the consequences for your arrogance."

Her eyes flared and Gendo felt like someone was digging into his brain with a needle.

"Aaahh…aaahh… AAAAAHHH!" He screamed, and fell down.

It only lasted for three seconds, but he saw and felt everything that this woman had ever experienced in her past. And there was a lot. He felt her agony, her hatred, her need for justice and vengeance against the world and the people responsible for its ruination over the generations. There were moments of feeling like being dismembered, burned alive, drowned, buried, suffocated, cut open, all at once, for years, like a research specimen or something. And then, he fell onto the floor.

"The best kind of the worst kind of victims are the ones that are trapped within their own bodies," The Demoness stated, cracking her neck. "That's the fate that your father is now experiencing. He can still see and hear, but he can't do anything beyond that. He can't move or talk. He can blink to communicate, but he's no different from a deaf-mute or some other form of invalid. This is his retribution. He brought this upon himself."

Shinji kept his gaze away from them.

"When I leave here, all my comatose victims will revive with the knowledge of all that has happened in the last few days," she told him, and then returned to leave the room.

"Why?" He asked her.

"You returned my choker, meaning there's no reason to keep them in such a state any further…and I believe we've both had our fair share of bad days since this all started. If it's any consolation…I commend you for at least trying to save the man that spat on your sense of mercy. See you later in a few days. We both need time to process everything that has happened."

And then she left out of the room, leaving the boy with his parents.

"He spat on my mercy," Shinji uttered, looking at Gendo, who looked back at him, his face blank with the exception of his eyes. "You…you spat on my mercy, Father."

He got up and walked over to him, unafraid of any reactions from the adult man because there was no hint of any mobility left in him.

"I don't really know why I bothered with trying to protect you," Shinji expressed. "You thought yourself untouchable. You thought yourself above everyone else, that we were like expendable pawns. But now you're looked down upon. Now, you're expendable. You're an invalid that everyone's going to be after, sooner or later…and I'm going to let them. This is all your fault, after all. You brought this upon yourself. You stupid bastard. Stupid! Stupid!"

Shinji kicked his father's body right there and then, venting his frustration out on the fool.

Gendo couldn't do nothing but take it.

"Why'd you do what you did to her?! Why did you provoke her?! You were warned that she was dangerous, and you still crossed her! You crossed her, and you paid the price! I hope you're proud of yourself! You're no better now than you weren't back then!"

He dropped to his knees, tears streaking his cheeks.

"You…you depraved, spineless bastard," he called his father, and then wiped his tears away. "But it's okay. Because I kept her from killing you. Even if it's an empty future of living like a quadriplegic that can't talk, you're still alive. I don't need to worry about your death being on my conscience now."

"Shinji?" They both heard a female voice…and Shinji looked to see Yui, awake and looking at them. "Why, Shinji? Why did he do that? Why couldn't he just accept your mercy?"

Shinji shuddered and looked away from her.

"It's his own fault," he told her. "He refused to accept his limits and messed with the wrong woman. Whatever happens to him now, he's not my responsibility. You deal with him if you want. You both deserve each other, even if it's like this."

"Shinji…"

"Goodbye, Mother."

The boy walked out of the room, sending the Eva back to its cage as he picked up his bike and rode away from the place.

-x-

Flying away from the Black Moon, The Demoness looked down at her hands, caressing her choker, feeling as though she would never get used to the feeling of it around her neck again.

 _Even when it was hopeless to start with,_ she thought, _he still tried to save his life from my wrath. Even when he had no chance, he still chose to save a man that would've sacrificed him and the rest of the world to be reunited with his wife. I may never understand your hopelessness toward saving people that mirror and echo the choices of one that made a similar choice for me without so much as even asking for my consent, but all they truly did was hurt you. Hurt both of us._

Landing on the pavement, she sent out a mental wave through the power of the Angel of Birds…and released the comatose victims of her brutality and installed within their minds the knowledge that passed them by as they were blind and deaf to the craziness that ensued for less than seven days for most of them. They would know who was a victim, what was revealed, and that this vendetta had been resolved and that Gendo Ikari had been dealt with and would be unable to defend himself against their retribution should they desire justice against him. But they would also know that his son, just wanting to do the right thing, tried to protect him from her, and only failed because the father would not take mercy being offered to him.

"We've both had a bad day," she muttered and walked away.

-x-

Shinji returned to the Rokubungi apartment later that evening and saw everyone there; they all knew what happened and waited for him to return.

"Shinji," Akira uttered, "are you alright?"

"I didn't let her kill him," he responded, "but I failed in saving him. I failed myself."

"No, Shinji," Takeru expressed. "You didn't fail your father. Your father failed you."

"You did for him what no one else would've done in years," Hikari added.

"And he has to live with that and everything else he's done," said Takuya to him.

"Thank you," Shinji praised them.

-x-

Laying in her bed, The Demoness thought back to her younger years. In fact, it was a year after her boyfriend gifted her with her choker, when she was being subjected to the cruelties of what these people her mother let do to her to transform her into an immortal, the same cruelties she made Gendo feel as they happened to her. What really pushed her over the edge of her tolerance towards the people that her mother had turn her out was the discovery of her boyfriend being dead, killed for trying to find her and get her out of their facility before they could hurt her further. During that time, she had lost most of everything and everyone that gave her life back then any worth, any meaning to embrace all that was life itself and look forward to the future.

 _I lost many of my friends,_ she thought, _my boyfriend, my peace of mind…and maybe…after watching my mother fall into that chasm as the supercontinent fractured into islands and smaller continents…I did lose much of my sanity. Over seventeen-thousand years…and I never forget what transpires around me, above me, under me, within me._

The memory she had of finding her boyfriend before she experienced her first Quickening, finding him on a pile of other bodies, presumably those of men and women that were executed by the people responsible for turning her out into an immortal, and how the reaction she had was a combination of fright, anger, heartache and vengeance. A burst of energy that was only a fraction of what had been sampled since creation. A force of nature associated with both mortals and gods…that broke apart the world she once knew and sparked and fanned the flames of other civilizations that were both incomplete and less than a fraction of what they were when brought together.

 _Over seventeen-thousand years…since all the passion I once had for life was taken from me…and I became The Demoness._

-x-

Three days went by, but neither Kensuke, Toji or Hikari heard from Shinji since that evening.

"Maybe he's still processing this all," suggested Toji as the three walked back to the Rokubungi apartment. "Or he's just tired and needed more sleep."

"I'm inclined to think it's the former over the latter," Hikari stated. "It was a pretty bad day."

"But in a way, he did save everyone else that was a victim of The Demoness," Kensuke expressed. "All her previous coma victims woke up across the planet."

"Only because she got back what was taken from her," Toji clarified as they approached the door. "Let's just ask him and see how he's doing."

Before he could press the doorbell, the door slid open, revealing Shinji, which surprised the trio.

"Oh," Shinji reacted, surprised to see them. "Hey, guys."

"Shinji, hey," Hikari greeted. "It's been three days since that day. We hadn't heard from you."

"I was…sleeping, among other things."

"So…what are you doing right now?" Toji asked him.

"I was just going to ride my bike across the city."

"That must be one of your favorite things to do," Kensuke told him.

"It is. Care to join me?"

"We don't have bikes, Shinji," Hikari confessed; since the three lived in such a city with the places they needed to get to being so close by, they had no need for bikes.

"You don't need a bike just to hang out with someone," he explained, "and it gets lonely when you're by yourself out there. In a country like this, one doesn't simply do as they please on their own."

As the four friends left, back inside the apartment, Akira, simply tidying up Shinji's room, looked at one of his opened diaries that was current, and saw, simply out of curiosity, what he wrote about his parents. She sighed at how Shinji, despite feeling better about his lack of progress in dealing with his father, stated in writing that he had some regret on how he left things with his parents after he left the base on the Black Moon.

"Regret," she stated as she closed the diary, "one of the greatest enemies of the heart and soul."

-x-

In some ways, this was truly a fate worse than death for him. Unable to lift a finger, to open his mouth, even speak, Gendo was a prisoner within his own body. All he could do was see and hear the world around him.

"You think if Shinji defeats The Demoness, what happened to him will be undone?" Fuyutsuki, revived from his coma, asked Yui and Ritsuko as they looked down at the incapacitated man.

"It's possible," went Yui, "but do you really think Shinji can do something like that? Do you think he can defeat…and behead…a woman that is, perhaps, the most powerful person on the planet after defeating an Angel on her own and taking its power?"

"The chances of any boy like Shinji defeating a woman like this are slim to none," expressed Ritsuko, "but personally…no. Shinji may not stand a chance against The Demoness. She has no sense of morale when it comes to facing others to get whatever it is she's after."

"I don't think it's about her sense of morale than it is about her sense of conviction," said Fuyutsuki.

"Her conviction?" Yui questioned. "That woman's been alive for over seventeen-thousand years and has no interests in what NERV or SEELE were striving to achieve. If anything, her goals are quite simple: Assume control of the world and decide what will be and what won't be, who will have whatever and who has to put up with the state of things. In her mind, the world was thrown off balance by the people before she was immortal, and it's her priority, her goal, her very reason for playing the Game for the Prize, to restore order the way she sees it…and the best way to do it right is for her to be in charge of everything and everyone."

"How can you know this?" Ritsuko asks her.

"When she was trying to pressure Gendo to give back her choker…and when she was hurting me in front of him and Shinji, she left herself open for a brief period. I saw her past…and why she does what she does. Whether she did it deliberately or had no knowledge of this is unknown. All I can say is that she feels she and Shinji are similar, which makes her desire to kill him something she seeks perfection in when she decides to go after him."

"And when will she go after him?" Fuyutsuki wanted to know.

"Not right now. As she stated when she left the base, she and Shinji both had a bad day because of Gendo's actions. She's just keeping her distance from him for now. But she will go after him…and she won't let anyone stop her."

"How can she view herself and a little boy like Shini as being similar?" Ritsuko asks.

"In her mind…they were both betrayed by the people that should've mattered most…but don't, anymore."

-x-

"…You actually made the Eva move on its own?" Kensuke asked Shinji as they, Hikari and Toji were over by a skatepark that was empty, one of the few parts of Tokyo-3 that didn't get warped when The Demoness pulled the Black Moon from the ground.

"It was actually done before, and I just got the power to do it myself," Shinji explained to them.

"Like…by remote control or puppetry?" Hikari suggested.

"Yeah, like those, but without the controller or the strings."

"Hey, Shinji," went Toji, curious about something. "When you do all those things that you're able to do, with all those different powers you have…does it ever…feel good?"

On his bike, Shinji thought about it for a moment…and answered, "Yeah, Toji. Sometimes, it actually does feel good. But it's not an exact feeling of goodness. It's more like a feeling of relief; I don't really use these powers beyond the situation I may find myself in. There's no recreational usage of these abilities I have."

"Like Superman. He never used his powers for personal reasons."

"I'll tell this, though, if it's possible, I will use these powers to restore the planet to its pre-Second Impact state. I mean, think about it. We've only seen pictures of the places that used to be around, of the plants and animals that used to be, but were wiped out when a man-made disaster came and maimed the world. If the Prize can do it, those places, those plants and animals can all be brought back. Imagine it all like it was before."

"But that's only if the Prize can be used to do something like that," Hikari stated, already imagining the possibility of animals she never saw returning to life, "and nobody's for certain what it is until after the Game is won by the last immortal."

"Yeah, I know. It sucks to not know what it really is over guessing what it could be."

"But, Shinji," Kensuke reminded them all, "your grandfather confessed that the Prize, in the possession of a good immortal would ensure a good future, meaning that it's possible what you believe can be done to restore the planet to its pre-Second Impact state is very likely to happen."

Shinji got off his bike and performed a handstand in front of the three.

"Meaning there's only one obstacle left to contend with before that could ever happen," he told them, "and it'll be my greatest obstacle ever."

He didn't have the power to read their minds, but they knew what was to be expected in the future. It was so close, but still too far to be perfectly perceived. The final threat, the only real danger left to face before the nightmare they were in could end…and he was their sword and shield against her.

-x-

"I didn't think that she would reduce your husband to this pathetic state of being," Yui heard the voice of Rei Ayanami as she stood in front of the door to the room she was in with Gendo. "I suppose, however, it is a fitting punishment for he whose heart beat with a cruelty and wickedness towards the world and everyone in it, including his own son, who tried to keep him safe."

"What are you doing here?" She asked the albino that defected from NERV.

"I'm here to admire her handiwork," Rei answered her. "How do you think he feels now that all he can do is look and listen to the world and people around him? How do you suppose that he get past this now that he's been reduced to such a pitiful state?"

Yui looked at Gendo, whose face didn't express it while his eyes told another story, and then looked back at Rei.

"I don't know how he feels," she expresses. "I just know that this is his own fault. He ended up this way because he got careless and tried to manipulate someone that he couldn't control, someone…that is truly a force to be reckoned with."

His eyes looked to her, but as he couldn't say anything, Gendo could only listen to Yui as she pointed out his disgrace.

"So, you understand and accept that the love of your life failed to rectify his actions and suffered the consequences with such disastrous results?" Rei questioned.

"I do," she answered. "He brought this outcome upon himself. The Demoness… She is truly the Devil incarnated within a woman."

"The Demoness isn't really demonic; it's just how her name translates. If she were demonic, she couldn't enter holy ground. She's as human as we are…or rather, she used to be human to a degree until things changed for her. But, yes, she's very human…and I'll follow her to the ends of her game."

The girl then walked away…but Yui got up and went after her.

"Rei!" She called out to her. "What do you mean, she used to be human? Isn't she… What do you know about her?"

In the hall, Rei turned back to face the woman.

"Turn to Dr. Akagi," she instructed. "She did the analysis on your husband's orders. You'd be surprised by what you find out."

That wasn't what she asked for, but Yui doubt Rei would be forthcoming on anything she was asked by anyone associated with NERV, which, due to the moral actions of her son, who just wanted to protect the people he cared about, and the vengefulness of The Demoness, who wanted her choker back, was now a crippled, defunct organization with no further reason to continue anything relating to its purpose. There were no more Angels, no further need for the Evas, and now there was no MAGI to collect and process information for the agency. And after what was revealed over the course of a week, there was no public support from the people that didn't work for the group.

"It's not like you people would share anything with anyone unless it benefited or suited you," Rei declared in front of her. "The information wouldn't aid you in trying to stop her. It would just help you get a sense of who your son is dealing with. And should you find out, the question would then transition from 'who The Demoness is' to 'will you tell your son about the woman that will be after him for something so invaluable, so desirable that it will be a matter of life and death'? It's not like he can trust you to tell him much of anything, anymore."

Rei then walked away again, leaving the woman wondering what else her husband had done to offend The Demoness to end up on the disability list.

"Gendo," she uttered as she returned to the room he was laying in, "what else had you done to this woman to get her to do what she did to you?"

Of course, now more than ever, Gendo couldn't say anything to anyone, either to defend his actions or explain whatever he knew about anything. He was just a useless piece of space. He might as well have been labeled a stroke victim, but he had no evidence of ever suffering from a stroke a day in his life; the parts of his body that dealt with speech and movement had just been put to a complete standstill, crippling him. Even though he knew something else about The Demoness that was just as disturbing as her estimated, chronological age.

 _Oh, you never made any attempt to tell her or anyone else about what you found out from the sample of my blood from the same night you stole my choker from me,_ he heard The Demoness in his head again. _You didn't think the information was relevant to your purposes, not that sharing it would've benefited anybody you dare to trust more than yourself. But I hope they do find out about me. I hope that the Immortal Ikari finds out, too. All the more reason to despise you for your arrogance and pity you for where you ended up. I wonder, though, does your son hate you or pity you more right now? Maybe he's relieved, even. I'd be, too, if I found out one of my parents, who's a complete imbecile, was disposed of._

He felt like he was going to go crazy with her talking to him right, but he couldn't do anything. Like all else that was happening to him, around him, he had to take it, whether he wanted to or not.

To be continued…

A/N: Does anyone feel sorry for Gendo? I know I sure don't. He was warned, and he paid the heaviest of prices for a fate worse than death. What do you think he and Ritsuko discovered that hasn't been revealed yet?


	24. Truth and Pain

Creation began on 06-14-18

Creation ended on 07-13-18

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Immortal Ikari: Truth and Pain

Time wasn't much of an issue for anyone right now. Most specifically for those of Tokyo-3's residents. It had been almost two weeks since the coma victims of The Demoness were revived with the revelation that Gendo Rokubungi-Ikari had been dealt with and left in a quasi-permanent state of immobility, and they were just trying to move on from there with whatever they could do, knowing that a woman of such power lived among them and could do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted, and she couldn't be stopped by them. She was like an unstoppable force without an immovable object to meet her somewhere in the middle, all save a little boy that she would be after in due time.

"The people are becoming worried that this new situation regarding The Demoness won't end," said Jose to Akira and Takuya one evening during a night out between friends and relatives.

They, Shinji, Quentin, Clyde, Hikari, Toji, Kensuke and Takeru had decided to meet up at the Gurumejueru again, and it was not as unusual as the previous time they got together and had a chat over a meal.

"My father almost wouldn't let me leave the house to come here," Kensuke confessed to them.

"I know what you mean," Toji expressed. "My grandfather and sister actually worried that The Demoness would try to get to Shinji through me."

"My father and sisters thought the same," added Hikari in the confession over the severity of the matter. "But it's pointless to try to keep us from seeing a friend. We more or less have no chance of dealing with the woman if she tries something."

"I'm hoping she doesn't try anything with you guys," went Shinji, setting his chopsticks down onto his bowl. "Whatever she does next should be between me and her."

"You think she's gonna do that?" Clyde asked him.

"I'm just hoping that she does. It's easier to worry less when nobody's put in danger because of their association to me."

"Believe it or not, Shinji, the feeling of woe is a constant in your current situation," Jose expressed. "It only diminishes when one sleeps…and lately, sleep has been a luxury some can barely afford."

"Still, even in the darkest of worries, anyone can sleep," explained Takeru, "but for those that inflict worry upon others, it's their minds that can't know the bliss of rest."

 _And yet, The Demoness can sleep easy when she chooses to call it a day,_ Shinji thought. "Hmm?"

He turned towards the entrance to the restaurant…and saw his mother, Fuyutsuki, Ritsuko and Misato.

"You gotta be kidding me," uttered Takuya.

"What could bring them here?" Hikari wondered. "Was there another plan to meet up?"

"Not after that one time we did," Akira explained. "This…is completely unexpected."

The newcomers came over and Fuyutsuki greeted them.

"Sorry for disturbing you," he added.

"Forgiven if you state your reason for doing so," Shinji expressed.

"We were wondering if you knew a bit more about…her than what was already discovered," Ritsuko informed them, keeping it simple.

"What is there left to know about her?" Kensuke asked. "She's proven herself to live up to her designation as the deadliest, she's capable of just about anything, she can know everything there is to know about anyone just from having a talk with them, and she's intimidating."

"You mean, none of you know about her…genetically?" Yui questioned.

"Why would we need to know about that part of her?" Quentin spoke. "Being immortal changes nothing about a person. We still bleed, grow hair and fingernails, and every other aspect of what people go through in life. We just don't age any further."

"Well, that's you, but this woman is not like other people," Ritsuko expressed. "Not by a long shot. Not by any shot."

"What are you saying?" Akira demanded.

"At around the same time Commander Ikari… I mean, Gendo Ikari had her attacked and her choker stolen, he had also had a blood sample taken from her," Misato revealed, having been informed just two days ago herself. "He had Ritsuko examine the blood and found out some things that go beyond what we thought was unusual about her."

Shinji brought up his left hand and rubbed his forehead.

"You four came all the way down here to tell us this?" He asked them.

"I'm afraid so," Yui answered her son, holding a closed folder.

He pointed over to some empty chairs nearby and they pulled them over to sit down.

"Your father didn't want anyone else to know about this," Fuyutsuki stated, "but as he has no further say in anything, this is for all of you to know."

Yui opened the folder packet and revealed some papers that detailed some rather scientific printouts that were too long and too brainy to explain to them and some photos, complete with negatives.

"What are these pictures of?" Jose asks.

"They're of The Demoness' chromosome pairs," Yui answered.

"Um, I'm only seeing two of them," Kensuke informed them. "Where's the rest of them?"

Ritsuko and Yui looked at one another and then back at the others.

"Those two pairs you're seeing…are the only pairs she's got," Ritsuko told them.

"What?!" Akira, Takuya and Takeru gasped.

"She only has two pairs?" Hikari repeated. "But…that's insane. That's not right."

"Why is it not right?" Clyde asks.

"Put quite simply, Ms. MacLeod, everyone, you, myself, even your brother, is supposed to have twenty-three pairs of chromosomes that make up their genetic information," Jose explained, having learned of biology during his years as an immortal. "Each species on the planet has a set number of chromosome pairs that make up their DNA. Tigers, lions and some other animals were said to have thirty-eight, frogs can have anywhere from twelve-thirty-six, and some plants have close to twelve-hundred pairs. In The Demoness' case, it's abnormal to have only two pairs. Even more so if she had only one pair."

"It's more than that," Fuyutsuki told them, "it's the genetic information we found out from them. She's a completely new type of human organism that's practically ancient. All the genetic information that makes up the human genome is there, but it's added on with…more."

"Go on," Shinji urged them.

"As the science of evolution has taught us," Yui uttered, "DNA adapts to the world around it, causing cells to mutate and form new layers of information stored in the genomes. As a consequence, however, there will always be wastage stored alongside the genetic code of any organism. The Demoness' DNA contains the additional information found in countless other organisms, from animals to plants…but it has very little waste associated with any of them. She's almost a perfect organism in a class by herself."

"So…what exactly are you saying about her?" Takuya asked.

"There's only two theories surrounding this unnatural phenomenon with her," Ritsuko explained. "One is that she's not some evolutionary byproduct or some offshoot of the human species, but is an artificial construct capable of independent thought and action. The other theory is that she was once human, but was artificially enhanced over time. Both theories, however, suggest that she's from an era of civilization that predates all other eras."

"An era…where people were capable of more advanced forms of what people today are capable of," added Yui. "I mean, more advanced than any other society that has ever lived…or will ever live."

"You're suggesting that, in theory, at least, The Demoness is either a former victim of science gone bad…or that somebody…engineered her to be this way," Shinji spoke up. "Do any of you actually believe this?"

"Regardless of whether one or the other is true, she's not someone you can get this way with existing technology of today's society anywhere. The only thing that's most creepy about her is that she hasn't started propagating, and she's more than capable of doing so."

"That's not creepy. That's just not possible for her right now." Akira told the woman. "Immortals are sterile. Unless the Game is won or they give up their Quickening to someone with the power to take it without beheading them, they can't have children of their own."

"Meaning if she wanted to do that, she has to defeat Shinji and win the Prize," Misato stated.

"When science is perverted and misused, the consequences that come afterward are chaotic and unpredictable," Shinji uttered, confusing Yui. "One of the immortals from the past studied science and would utter this to herself as a mantra to keep from doing something like whatever made The Demoness into this nightmare."

In addition to the information surrounding The Demoness' DNA, there was a picture of her included, possibly taken during the time she invaded NERV HQ and crippled Gendo to get her choker back.

-x-

High above the skyscrapers of Tokyo-3, unseen by the masses, The Demoness knew that the Immortal Ikari had just found out about her tinkered biology, and wasn't the least bit concerned; the day anyone was to discover this fact about her was simply one of those inevitabilities she accepted. But realization of how his family, friends and uncertain relationships only had two theories of how she ended up the way she did instead of more than two was pretty insulting to her.

They could've theorized that she was the offspring of someone else who was experimented on, or a chimera or fusion between multiple species with the human DNA serving as the base foundation. However, they were due their credit just for coming up with potential possibilities for how she came to be, even if only one of their two theories was the accurate one.

"People today are just as they were over five-thousand years ago," she uttered, "and even then, they thought they understood the depths of certain situations when they only understood at surface level."

She then looked up at the Black Moon that, despite being so close to the planet, didn't cause any shift in the global ocean levels that the actual moon could all the time. And despite being so close, no artificial eclipses or lunar phase shifts or even atmospheric changes occurred. It was as though the Black Moon was simply there for show, and it was a tangible location that NERV exploited over fifteen years ago to bring about the end of the world.

 _And some of them thought the world would end three years ago, and all that nonsense was just for laughs back when I was six years old,_ she thought…and her wings flapped once to give her more elevation in the air.

If anyone took notice of her and believed her to be an angel, they'd be wrong…but she couldn't change what she had become…and there was nothing like she had become over the millennia. Her original name might've meant "The Angel", but she would always be one that fell from grace and embraced vengeance and became an incarnation of the Devil. And most people believed that the Devil…was no beauty to behold.

"Wouldn't you agree…Mother?" She spoke, turning around…and seeing another hallucination of her mother, exactly like she was from the hotel suite before she left.

"You knew I was near?" The woman responded, floating in the air with her. "And you're not surprised by my presence?"

"During the two weeks that came after the day I punished that disgrace of a man, I kept retreating to my hoard where I keep all my possessions, including the people that follow me to the depths of my eternity, and as I kept going through the things, spaces and individuals, I started to realize something. Actually, I've started realizing a bunch of things. One of them being what Rei Ayanami was wise enough to point out for me…and was there a revelation for me to experience."

"And what was this revelation?"

"I always thought you were dead, but now I'm not sure, anymore. I watched you fall into a chasm after I tore apart the supercontinent, but I didn't exactly see you die. This means, like anyone else with access to resources that can extend one's natural lifespan beyond the normal expectancy, that you could've actually survived the fall and slip through the ages like a worm through soil. Maybe even make yourself immortal."

"But you could be hallucinating for real, your mind playing tricks on your perception."

"For a while, that's what I thought, angered by the mere memory of you. You know, I cried after I saw you last time, upset that you hurt me. I often wonder who, if anyone in our family, besides Grandfather, would pray for me, if they would say they'd take my pain for me, if there was a way to save my soul for me…because you truly hurt me. If I had to be turned out for you, to live and kill for you, then you should know that I will desire vengeance upon you. I thought that after I dealt with Gendo, I could return my focus to his only son…but now I have to put him on hold longer…because I want to make sure that you're dead. I want to know what you think I'm going to do to you, Mother. I want to know…because, just like with that man, I want to do something…worse."

"Worse? What could be worse than what one thinks you're going to do them?"

"The fear of what could befall them is just as worse as what does befall them. If you see her, ask my mother if she's afraid of me. I want to know…so I can see the look on her face when I do kill her."

The woman began to shift her facial expression from expressionless to one of concern.

"And she should know what her name means in the Galician language of today's society of mortals," The Demoness went on. "Tristezas, when translated into English, means 'sorrows', which I feel is appropriate, since, just as I am the Devil incarnated within a woman…you're a woman that spreads sorrow, meaning we both have our own degrees of negativity that is inescapable."

"I'm not a woman that brings sorrow. I simply see things with greater clarity than others do."

"Well, here's what I see in your future: The wraiths of vengeance and betrayal, the maidens of hatred and desire, and the hounds of pain and death…will be converging upon your body and I will be there to watch as you scream your last scream and breathe your last breath."

The hallucination began to fade away, her expression was of fear contorted with rage.

"You have to find me first, daughter dearest," she told The Demoness, and was gone; this, in and of itself, confirmed for The Demoness the inescapable truth she had to accept.

Her mother was very much alive, having survived the destruction of the primordial civilization they once knew as home. Now, she had to make sure she found her…and put her down for good. Even if there was a possibility that she was not immortal, meaning she could die like any other mortal, Tristezas had outlived her life in The Demoness' mind.

-x-

"…Well, that was an interesting meal and get together," went Toji as they all walked down the street after leaving the restaurant.

"Yeah," added Shinji, but he wasn't feeling that it was an interesting get together after the information disclosed to them about The Demoness.

"Shinji, are you feeling pity for The Demoness?" Akira asked him.

"Hardly. I'm pondering how to face her now. She's not just some immortal woman that's intimidating and deadly, anymore. She's worse than what one can ever possibly imagine."

"How worse?" Yui asked her son.

"Not too long ago, I thought the Evangelions were the worst achievement science ever produced, but now The Demoness takes that status, and she's centuries before anything else was ever achieved. She's before all the worst things that befell people. The sacking of Rome, the Ten Plagues of Egypt, London being burned to the ground, the discovery of cancer and AIDS, even the measles. If she is a product of some twisted science from long ago, then she's the ultimate abomination that has ever existed."

"You think she's more dangerous than the Evas?" Ritsuko questioned. "Than the Angels?"

"She was able to defeat an Angel on her own, unaided by an Eva, cause people across the planet with access to nuclear missiles to dispose of them, raise the Black Moon from the Earth, anchor it to the ground, put people into comas at will, and put that disgrace into a pseudo-vegetable state where all he can do is see and hear. She's truly more dangerous than anyone or anything we've seen before. An outright outrage against nature because she was perverted in an unforgivable way."

"Well spoken, Shinji," Takeru expressed.

As everyone walked further down the street, Yui stayed behind with Shinji to speak of something a bit personal that needed to be discussed between them.

"There was something I needed to ask you," she spoke to him. "Are you actually…okay with the way things have ended, regarding the Angels and NERV? I mean… What was supposed to happen after they were defeated, what you prevented from ever happening when you destroyed Adam and Lilith and turned Unit-01 into a useless drone you alone can control, and your father… Are you truly…just fine with none of that happening and what did happen, even though I thought it was the right thing to do?"

He stopped walking and faced her with a stern expression.

"I saw what would happen had I did nothing," he stated, "and I'd rather seek an alternative solution than the one others in control thought was the best one. The echoes of the outcome that never were still remain in my mind, and always will, like the traces of a nightmare being forgotten. Human Instrumentality was not for everyone, no matter what you thought of it. But to answer your question, yes, I am okay with the way things are right now. The Angels have all been dealt with, the fear of a Third Impact put to rest, and anyone that supports NERV can cease now. While the future remains unwritten until either The Demoness or I prevail in the Game and claim the Prize, the total destruction of the human race and the planet itself is nothing but a fantasy that exists only in the comics and movies. So my question to you is…are you okay with the current state of things?"

"Honestly, I am not okay with them," she revealed. "I really wished you could've believed in what your father and I were trying to achieve."

"It's not worth it, Mother. It'll never be worth it, no matter who believes in it or who doesn't. And his agenda was separate from yours. But in the end, both weren't worth it."

"And The Demoness… What if you can't stop her? What if you fall before her and she takes your head off and wins the Game?"

"What would you have me do?"

"Run and hide."

"Except I won't do that. I have a personal reason for wanting the Prize, and it no longer has anything to do with my wanting to be mortal again. If I can use the Prize to restore the world to its previous state, then I must face her and win the Game, no matter what could happen. If I can do that, then I could give the world a new future. A better one. And…I really want to see how Japan looks during the winter season. Constant summer is a drag and it gets tiresome."

Yui and Shinji were clearly on different sides of the line that was thick with differing reasons between mother and son. No matter what Yui thought, Shinji had been going down a path that had no place for any agendas that involved what the science she used to create the Eva and exploit the power of the Angels for the benefit of insuring the future of the human race's memory. He was just going to do whatever he chose that was the lesser of other choices that required sacrifices to be made.

"And the Eva isn't necessary, anymore, so it should disposed of for good," she heard him say to her. "No more building of them, no more suggestions of why they're needed, no more of anything regarding them, ever again."

"What if people still need them? As a deterrent?"

"Then they're foolish if they think that they're gonna continue making children operate them. Just walk away and never look back."

"Not everyone thinks the way you do, Shinji."

"If everyone thought the way I did, there'd be no problems of the large sort, but then there'd be no excitement or need for adventure. Besides, I'm not looking for anyone to agree with me. That's the thing I've come to enjoy about individuality: Free will, the ability to make choices that aren't the same choice as other choices made by other people. It's the ones that can't or won't accept the choices made that actually have the most impact on the world or someplace of significance that have the most difficulty accepting the present."

"That's true."

Yui looked at him for a moment…and almost thought he had grown to his actual age, his hair still a messy mop of ebony that almost echoed her hairstyle, but his eyes stayed the same as they were now. Instead of being full of life and happiness, they were strained with varying degrees of coping with an altered way of existence, relationships that were either thick or thin, and personal fears that seem to be what drove him to do all that he did. And then…she saw a version of him that seemed like the worst of the worse in life had been forced upon him and he lost every semblance of sense and sanity. It was his eyes that caught her off guard the most; they were vacant and devoid of any trace of love or hope.

She turned away from him, seeing the little boy that he currently was…and not the fourteen-year-old that he couldn't become.

"Be careful when you do face her," she advised him.

"Yeah," he got the message, and then walked away to rejoin Akira and Takuya.

-x-

The Demoness' collection of various possessions hoarded over the ages was vast and unique, but serving to do one thing at the moment, which was to infuriate her over the fact that even though her mother was very much alive, she had no idea where she was hiding. For all she knew, that treacherous woman could've been hiding among the castles and skyscrapers and towers she took for her own.

"Um…The Demoness, ma'am?" She heard a little girl's voice, and turned to face a little girl with short, green hair and red eyes, dressed in a silver dress with blue leggings. "Have you…made progress?"

What could've bothered some was the fact that the child was not intimidated by the immortal woman…and hadn't been since they met over eighteen-hundred years ago alongside her mother and elder brother when the village they lived in was razed to the ground by an invading army. But The Demoness simply sighed and stated that progress was not as simple as making a simple plan of action.

"If I knew where to find my mother, that would be progress," she included as she sat in a throne she took from a corrupt king.

"I believe you will find her when the time is right."

"But when will that be?"  
"Nobody truly knows."

Rubbing her forehead, The Demoness sighed in frustration over not knowing where her mother was hiding. The sooner she dealt with her, the sooner she could return her focus on the Immortal Ikari and claim his head.

"With your permission, my mother and I would like to check the Palace of Cows in case she's hiding here," said the girl to her.

"Granted," she answered her, "and it's Cow Palace. Or the California State Livestock Pavilion. The chances of her hiding among my collection of buildings are slim, but if you do find her, I want to be the first to know."

"Yes, ma'am."

The little girl ran off to inform her mother that she had permission from The Demoness to search the Cow Palace.

When Second Impact ended, there were many things left in the aftermath that were ripe and up for grabs that could be found in the United States. The Statue of Liberty, Alcatraz, Willis Tower, even the mediocre buildings in Las Vegas, like the Stratosphere Tower, and just last year, The Demoness decided she wanted the High Roller before it officially opened to the public. Her very personal domain was practically littered with miles and miles of buildings and towers and castles and small settlements that became rumors and old wives tales because they disappeared along with several people over centuries and millennia ago. The only places she kept separate from these pieces of history…were places that were from her own history. Such included the bane of her past: The house she grew up in, which she decided to go pay a visit to again.

The building, three stories tall, made of organic metal and marble, but looking like a small office building if one were to guess, held a lifetime of grief for the deadliest immortal in existence. So much so that she separated her own room from the thing and set it up elsewhere.

"The Demoness?" A man spoke up, walking out of the front door of the building, aided by organic jade tentacles protruding from a large ring on his back. "What brings you here?"

He was elderly, possibly in his eighties, with short, grayish-black hair, several wrinkles adorning his face, golden eyes and was wearing a tan robe that hid his arms and legs.

"I just found out that my mother is still very much alive," she told him.

"Ah," the elder gasped. "That's not possible. You said she died. You watched her fall into a chasm."

"That's what I thought, and that was the problem. I saw her fall into a chasm. But I didn't see her actually die, so it's possible that she could have survived."

"You mean…for over seventeen-thousand years…she has survived the destruction of our world, our very society, like we have because of you…and we didn't know?"

The Demoness didn't make any excuses to him. This revelation had disgraced her enough herself.

"I never once thought your mother was capable of this atrocity that led to our downfall as a society more advanced than anywhere else in existence on the planet, but her ability to cheat death is beyond reprehensible. She, only because she manipulated you, caused the end of everything we ever knew. She killed those people, set the Game in motion, made you a participant…and killed my Angelus…killed my granddaughter…and left you in her place."

The Demoness closed her eyes and allowed her moment of rage to pass at being reminded of her former identity. While the man in front of her was her maternal grandfather, their relationship was strained by the fact that she had cast aside her birth name and chose the new name that stuck with her for far longer and became an identity she embraced.

"What do you intend to do about her?" He asked her.

"Worse than what I thought I did," she answered cryptically; this wasn't going to be any different from how she thought she was going to handle Gendo when he had stolen her choker. "But I want to know what she thinks I'm going to do to her…just so I can do worse."

He never gave it on the surface, but deep down, he was afraid of this woman his only grandchild had grown up into that was filled with such rage.

-x-

Sleep seemed to elude Shinji tonight. Even as he laid in his futon, his mind was restless. It seemed that just when he thought he knew enough about The Demoness, she ended being even more mysterious and more dangerous if she had other abilities that went beyond the ones they could obtain from other immortals.

Whoosh! He felt her presence nearby and jumped out of bed, grabbing his jian and brandishing it defensively in front of him as he faced the window by his desk.

Her face rose up from beneath his window…and she tapped the glass.

"I'm not here to hurt you, Immortal Ikari," she uttered, and then flew up towards the roof.

But he didn't trust her, and kept his sword unsheathed as he ran out his room and towards the roof.

The Demoness stood in front of the moon, obscured and silhouetted by the light it reflected from the sun, her attire currently that of a simple, white dress and small shawl that barely reached below her chest. If anything, Shinji wanted to think her appearance was angelic and masked her darker aspects. But if he spoke even a single word, she would know what his thoughts were on that.

"If I wanted to kill you, I'd be better prepared and not dressed in my pajamas, Immortal Ikari," she told him, not bothering to look at him. "You can put your blade away."

Shinji turned his sword upside-down and tucked it behind his right arm.

"I said I'd deal with you after we both had time to recover from the arrogance of your father, and I meant that. I've recovered from his arrogance. However, even if you have recovered, I still have to put our matter on hold…and I don't know when I'll get back to you on it."

This confused Shinji. First, The Demoness ignored him because she wanted him to be at his strongest when he had the power of the remaining Angels and Seeds of Life, then ignored him again because his father attacked her and stole her choker that she wore proudly around her neck…and now she was ignoring him again? For the third time? Was she teasing him? Treating him like a personal game within the Game?

"I should ask why, but you'd probably lie to me," he finally spoke, and got the feeling she knew everything about his thoughts, his fears and his concerns about why she was doing this.

"To be simple and short, it's the one thing I thought I'd never have to concern myself with: A family matter." She told him.

"That…doesn't say much."

"It's not supposed to. But as soon as I resolve it, you and I, we settle the Game once and for all. No more delays, no more distractions…and no more hindrances."

As her wings manifested again on her back, the child immortal had to ask, "Who or what is that makes your current situation a family matter? The last I ever checked, you're a rogue!"

Turning to face him, she responded, "I just found out that the woman that betrayed me isn't so much a memory as I had hoped long ago. And right now, there is no greater hatred than that of a child insistent upon revenge. Until next time."

Then, she took to the air, disappearing into the darkness of the night.

Shinji approached the edge of the ledge, unable to see or sense where she took off, unsure of what she had meant by what she told him…until realization struck his nerves.

"The woman that betrayed her long ago," he uttered. "Her mother? Her mother is still alive?"

To be continued…

A/N: Uh-oh. And bummer, too. Just when you think we can get to their battle, something else interferes with their lives. It makes you feel it's hopeless, that they'll never resolve their situation, but they will. The Game will not be ignored…and the Prize must be won.


End file.
